UAAG CH18

“Who said that the black box of Rogue Aviation Flight 318 fell into the sea and couldn’t be found? The entire plane is in the Pacific Ocean and hasn’t been found to this day.”

A slightly husky male voice sounded from behind the two of them. Fu Cheng and Lina turned their heads simultaneously to look. They saw a certain man holding his phone to his ear with his right hand, seemingly on a call. As he walked down the stairs, he spoke in English to the person on the other end: “Mn, that’s it then. Waiting for your news.” Then he hung up and walked down the last two steps.

Lina laughed. “Right, the entire plane of Rogue 318 hasn’t been found, but its black box also hasn’t been found, Reid. I don’t think I said anything wrong?”

Zhuo Huan raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t refute her again. Instead, he asked, “Why are you suddenly talking about Rogue 318?”

Lina told him about her conversation with Fu Cheng just now.

After listening, Zhuo Huan asked abruptly, “So do you think I like eating salad?”

Lina didn’t react for a moment: “What?”

Zhuo Huan calmly took a detour, walked into the kitchen, and got a glass of water. “Actually, I also want to eat hot pot.”

Lina: “…”

Fu Cheng: “…”

Taking a sip of water, Zhuo Huan said, “I’m not particularly interested in aircraft accidents where the black box fails; it’s just that the cases I’ve encountered happen to be like that. As for Rogue 318… it’s not because the wreckage hasn’t been salvaged yet either.” Sensing Fu Cheng’s gaze, Zhuo Huan turned his head and met his eyes. “You are interested in Rogue 318?”

Fu Cheng put the washed lettuce into the drain basket. “When the Rogue Aviation incident happened, I happened to be studying flight theory courses. My instructor used Rogue 318 as an example, and we discussed a lot in class. Since no aircraft wreckage was found, it was impossible to deduce exactly what caused the plane to crash into the sea, but we roughly discussed several reasons.”

Zhuo Huan’s gaze paused. He quietly put down the water glass and said, “Let’s hear it.”

“First of all, Rogue 318 crashed into the sea in Pacific airspace. The air traffic control area it was in belonged to Canada. According to the International Aviation Regulations, Rogue Aviation would communicate with Canadian ATC every hour to report flight status. At 3:14 AM on June 13, 2016, Canadian ATC called Rogue 318 as usual but received no response. So the public deduction four years ago was that Rogue Aviation crashed between 2:16 AM and 3:14 AM.”

Fu Cheng spoke quickly but not hurriedly, methodically recounting the events of four years ago with a calm and relaxed expression. However, he didn’t notice that as she listened to him, Lina’s expression changed slightly; she looked at Fu Cheng in astonishment.

…Four years ago. She didn’t expect Fu to remember it so clearly, down to the minute?

Fu Cheng continued, “Since the pilots of Rogue 318 never reported any flight malfunctions to ATC, and their flight altitude at the time was 9,800 meters, assuming there really was a sudden mechanical failure, there should have been time to contact ATC, or at least press the emergency button. So our first conjecture was… a terrorist attack.”

In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 suddenly exploded and disintegrated mid-air while flying over the British town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people, including 11 people on the ground. Afterward, investigators quickly caught two Libyan terrorists and confirmed that they had placed a bomb on the Pan Am flight.

Besides that, in 1985, Air India Flight 182 suddenly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while flying to the UK. Afterward, investigators announced that this was a terrorist attack initiated by Sikh terrorists who had placed a bomb on the plane.

Zhuo Huan: “Good guess. After the Rogue 318 accident, investigators immediately thought of a terrorist attack. They immediately conducted background checks on the 231 passengers and 18 crew members on board, and simultaneously confirmed the background of the previous batch of passengers on this plane, and re-investigated the luggage hold. However, no one on this plane had any connection with terrorist organizations.”

Fu Cheng stopped washing the vegetables and looked at Zhuo Huan. “The plane crash happened over the Pacific Ocean. If it was a missile attack, there are not many countries capable of doing that, and neither the Chinese nor the American satellite systems detected any missile trajectories that day, so it wouldn’t be a missile attack.”

No bomb was planted on the plane in advance, and no one suddenly fired a missile to attack the plane.

Then the remaining ways for a sudden crash were actually not many.

Fu Cheng said seemingly casually, “Rogue 318 used a new plane with no bad maintenance records, so the possibility of ground maintenance personnel making a mistake is extremely low. So four years ago in class, our second conjecture was… aircraft design error, causing sudden mechanical failure.”

As soon as his voice fell, the spacious kitchen suddenly fell silent.

“Fu, do you know what you are saying?”

Lina had originally been listening to Fu Cheng and Zhuo Huan discuss this plane crash with great interest. Hearing this, the smile on her face froze instantly. She immediately looked at Fu Cheng with a serious expression and asked word by word.

Fu Cheng didn’t answer; he gazed quietly into Zhuo Huan’s eyes.

In front of him, Zhuo Huan held the water glass in one hand and casually put the other hand in his pocket. As Fu Cheng finished this sentence, his thin lips slowly pursed. After a long while, he hooked the corner of his lips and scoffed, “Oh? Let’s hear it.”

Fu Cheng: “It’s not uncommon for aircraft design errors to cause mid-air disintegration. For example…”

Zhuo Huan suddenly snatched his words, speaking extremely fast: “For example, in 1974, the cargo door design of the DC-10 aircraft was flawed, causing the door of a DC-10 to blow open mid-air, leading to explosive decompression of the cabin and the plane crash.”

Fu Cheng: “Right, and also, in 1992…”

Zhuo Huan: “In 1992, US Airways Flight 405 used a Fokker F28 aircraft, which crashed on the spot while taking off from LaGuardia Airport. The root cause of the accident was a serious design flaw in the de-icing system of the Fokker series aircraft; very little ice could cause serious loss of control and rolling.”

Pausing, Zhuo Huan lowered his eyes to look at the young man in front of him, his fingers gently tapping on the wall of the glass water cup. “The plane used by Rogue 318 would absolutely not have such low-level errors.”

Looking at him, Fu Cheng suddenly smiled. “Have you disassembled it, Teacher Zhuo?”

The smile on Zhuo Huan’s face gradually faded.

Fu Cheng: “Oh right, you haven’t disassembled it, but you designed this plane yourself.”

“In April 2016, Rogue Aviation ordered ten McFly F485s from McFly Company. The Flight 318 that crashed used exactly one of them. Unlike the previous aircraft in the McFly series, the F475, the new F485 uses dual-shaft high-bypass turbofan engines, meeting the demand for cruising distance… Under the same cruise configuration, using a special DA algorithm, fuel consumption is greatly reduced…”

“And the Clmax coefficient of the F485 reaches an astonishing 3.38. Moreover, with the Mach number doubled, the slope of the wing lift curve only increases by 7%…”

In the quiet kitchen, the young man’s rapid words fell like heavy rain, one after another.

In the clean and tidy kitchen, only the sound of water flowing could be heard. The air condensed almost into substance; the tense atmosphere made the air feel like molten lead, pressing heavily on the shoulders of the three people.

Lina looked at Zhuo Huan and Fu Cheng hesitantly; she didn’t know how it suddenly turned into this.

Beside her, the two stared at each other silently.

No one knew how much time had passed, seemingly a century, when a crisp sound broke the silence.

With a clunk, the glass water cup was gently placed on the marble countertop. The white-patterned marble surface was like a mirror, reflecting the man’s thin, long fingers.

Zhuo Huan: “Who said I haven’t disassembled this plane.”

Fu Cheng froze.

Zhuo Huan flicked the water cup with his finger, making it slide across the marble countertop and stop right in front of Lina. He said, “Pour me a glass of water.” Then he looked at Fu Cheng again. “Four years, three months, and nineteen days have passed since the Rogue 318 accident. During this period, the F485 has only had one accident, and the cause was pilot negligence.”

Fu Cheng was silent for a moment. “…I didn’t mean that. Teacher Zhuo, I was just talking about the discussion between us and our instructor in the flight course four years ago.”

Zhuo Huan suddenly said, “You know the F485 very well?”

Fu Cheng was stunned and looked up at him subconsciously.

“New DA algorithm, Clmax coefficient of 3.38… Do Chinese Air Force pilots have to learn these?”

Fu Cheng’s lips moved, his fingers tightened, his brain spinning rapidly, finding a suitable reason for himself in an instant. But just as he opened his mouth, Zhuo Huan interrupted him: “The plane disappeared on June 13th. On the 19th, I joined the investigation team as a representative of McFly Company. Do you know what the second conjecture given by the investigation team was at that time?”

A sudden roar rang in his ears, and all the blood in his body flowed backward from his feet to the top of his head. An indescribable anger was like a flood, rampaging and destroying all reason. But at the last moment, reason used all its strength to return to his brain.

Fu Cheng heard himself say in a calm voice, “Oh? What was it?”

Before Zhuo Huan could speak, Lina said from behind him, “I heard about this from my father; it was also the reason most accepted by the investigation team. Qi Zhifeng, the captain of Rogue 318, suffered investment losses in stocks half a year before the incident, owing a huge debt of over 10 million. And two months prior, his wife and son encountered a terrible car accident together. His son died on the spot, and until the crash happened, his wife was still lying in a hospital bed in a coma, showing no improvement.”

Speaking of this, Lina suddenly remembered: “Reid, this seems a bit similar to the American Airlines 3157 accident you’ve been interested in recently. In both accidents, the public was more inclined to believe it was pilot suicide.”

While speaking, Lina handed the freshly poured water to Zhuo Huan.

Lina sighed with emotion. “Captain Qi was also pitiful—sudden loss of son, wife in a coma, and huge debts. If it were me, I probably wouldn’t be able to bear such pressure long ago. I wonder how he passed Rogue Aviation’s psychological test.”

Fu Cheng clenched his fingers, unable to suppress the impulse any longer, and was about to speak up to refute Lina. But he heard a low male voice sounding from beside him, still as nonchalant as ever, yet with a solemnity that allowed no joking: “So the cause of the Rogue Aviation Flight 318 accident has already been found?”

Lina was stunned, not understanding: “Reid?”

Zhuo Huan lowered his eyes and let out a “tsk” sound from his mouth. This sound usually made him appear very arrogant and difficult to communicate with, but now, he looked at his good friend with indifferent eyes, let out a light snort through his nose, and said coldly, “Who gave you the confidence to say it was pilot suicide? Did you fish out the plane wreckage, or did you find the captain’s suicide note? For an accident where the truth has not been ascertained, no one is qualified to accuse whose fault it is.”

Lina was silent for a moment. “Sorry, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have arbitrarily assumed it was the pilot’s problem.”

Zhuo Huan casually broke off a banana from the kitchen table and handed it to Lina.

Lina smiled and took the banana. “Are you planning to use a banana to win back a friend who was considering ending the friendship because of your extremely harsh attitude just now? If I didn’t know you are always so serious and merciless when facing such things, I would have broken off relations with you long ago.”

Zhuo Huan was noncommittal. “I just wanted to say, the dead cannot defend themselves. Instead of blaming the dead, it’s better to blame the living. At least the living can defend themselves a bit.” Saying this, he glanced lightly at Fu Cheng.

Since Zhuo Huan criticized Lina for making rash judgments, Fu Cheng had kept his head down, not saying a word.

Hearing this, he looked up at Zhuo Huan.

In the profound silence, only the sound of that heart beating fervently in his chest could be heard.

After a moment, Fu Cheng smiled. “Teacher Zhuo is joking again.”

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