UAAG CH31

After a brief meeting to summarize the data reports, Lawrence assigned investigation tasks to his subordinates. Just as he was about to go downstairs to the warehouse to inspect the cleanup of the aircraft wreckage, someone lightly tapped his shoulder from behind.

Lawrence turned around. “Patrick?”

Zhuo Huan stood with both hands in his pockets, raising an eyebrow at him. Lawrence paused, not understanding his meaning. Then, looking past Zhuo Huan’s shoulder, he saw the dark-haired young man standing behind him.

Lawrence: “…Fu?”

Wait, what was going on?

“Could it be that there’s a new discovery, or perhaps a new task that needs to be done?” His expression tightened.

Zhuo Huan turned his upper body, jutted his chin in Lawrence’s direction, and said to Fu Cheng, “Ask him for a reward.”

Fu Cheng: “…”

Lawrence: “…?” What?!

The Great Master Zhuo never left a name when doing good deeds. He gave Fu Cheng a deep look, left behind an expression full of meaningful implication, and turned to walk away. After he left, Fu Cheng and Lawrence looked at each other. After a long while, Lawrence spoke up. “Fu, I’m a little confused about the current situation. So, what is… the situation?”

Fu Cheng smiled helplessly. “Mr. Zhuo is joking, you don’t need to worry about it.”

Lawrence, however, gradually sensed a hint of meaning.

Lawrence was only in his early forties this year, yet he was already a Senior Investigator for the NTSB and possessed a dedicated investigation team named after himself. He looked at Fu Cheng and said apologetically, “I troubled you to speak up about that matter for me today. Fu, I truly thank you.”

Fu Cheng: “No need, it wasn’t a big deal.”

Lawrence smiled. “In any case, you helped me resolve a vexing issue. I will remember this. Thank you.”

Fu Cheng thought for a moment. “Actually, you could have spoken to Mr. Zhuo yourself. For something like this, I don’t think Mr. Zhuo would have been angry. And even if you had said it directly from the start, I think Mr. Zhuo would still have come to the States.”

Lawrence pondered for a moment, thinking he understood Fu Cheng’s meaning. “True. The disappearance of the black box doesn’t mean the truth can’t be found, only that the difficulty is extreme. I should believe in Patrick’s ability.”

Fu Cheng paused, smiled, and didn’t say anything more.

Arriving at the first floor, Fu Cheng stood on the staircase. As he reached the last two or three steps, Zhuo Huan looked up and saw him.

Their eyes met. The Great Master Zhuo raised an eyebrow. “Did you get it?”

Did you get the reward?

Fu Cheng nodded.

Zhuo Huan let out a light chuckle and looked away.

Fu Cheng reached the ground floor. He had originally intended to go directly to contact the air traffic controller who was on duty the day of the crash, but he inexplicably froze in his steps. His gaze lingered on Zhuo Huan’s lean, tall back for a moment. In a trance, he seemed to suddenly return to that summer night in Helsinki. This man had his hair in a small bun, wore a thin T-shirt, and walked ahead without looking back.

Behind him, a punk youth dragged a suitcase, cursing as he walked forward.

The humid summer wind, mixed with the fishy, slightly bitter scent of soil; the moonlight was fresh and clear, illuminating the cold cement path. Somehow, he had lifted his feet and followed. From then on, he had always followed behind him.

…Hm?

Does his hair seem longer?

Is he not going to cut it?

Snapping back to reality, Fu Cheng frowned in confusion. He tilted his head and thought for a moment, but finding no answer, he could only turn and leave.

Logan International Airport is located in East Boston, not far from the temporary investigation headquarters set up by the NTSB.

With an introduction from Lawrence, Fu Cheng met the air traffic controller on duty that day.

He was a young lad with curly brown hair. In fact, most air traffic controllers are not very old. It is an extremely high-pressure and strenuous job requiring vast amounts of energy and endurance.

For example, this controller needed to simultaneously coordinate the takeoff and landing of more than a dozen aircraft. While working, he had to rely on the radar map to know the exact altitude and position of every plane, know where they wanted to go, and arrange a reasonable route for them. A single mistake could result in unbearable consequences.

In 2002, a Russian passenger jet and a DHL cargo plane collided over Überlingen in southern Germany. The accident resulted in 71 deaths with no survivors. The crashed Russian airliner was carrying 45 Russian children on a trip to Spain. On the night of the accident, countless families lay awake all night, in agony.

There were many reasons for this accident, but the negligence of the air traffic controller was absolutely one of the indispensable major causes. Even though this controller had many helpless circumstances and the air crash was not his will, his negligence caused the destruction of countless families; this was a fact that could not be ignored.

Two years after the incident, this controller was stabbed to death by a grief-stricken father who had lost his children.

When Fu Cheng met this controller, he had already returned to normal and was mentally stable. But when Fu Cheng mentioned the name AA4012, he fell silent for a long time, unable to smile again.

“It was 2:00 AM. I was on the night shift. I had already taken over control of AA4012 for two and a half hours. In another hour… no, 50 minutes, they should have landed at Logan Airport. It was the middle of the night, there weren’t many planes, and they didn’t need to queue. I had already planned to have them land behind a Qantas flight. But at 2:13 AM, I noticed on the radar map that their altitude suddenly plummeted.”

The controller licked his dry lips and looked at Fu Cheng. “You know, as I just said, there weren’t many planes, so as soon as they started dropping altitude, I noticed. I contacted them immediately. But no one responded.”

Fu Cheng: “I know, you said there weren’t many planes.”

The controller nodded. “Right. I hailed them several times, but they didn’t answer. Then, AA4012 disappeared from my radar map. I immediately dialed the emergency line and dispatched helicopters for search and rescue. But it was late at night, and the search conditions were poor. We couldn’t find the plane immediately.”

Fu Cheng typed a line on the tablet he carried with him. He looked up and asked, “Before the accident, did the American Airlines pilots say anything special to you? For example, anything potentially related to a hijacking?”

“No. Our last contact was at 1:47 AM. Everything was normal then. Captain Kyle was communicating with me; he was in charge of radio communications that day. I’ve already handed the call recordings over to the NTSB. Aside from work-related talk, he only said one thing to me that wasn’t very relevant.”

Fu Cheng’s gaze sharpened. “What did he say?”

The controller recalled, “He asked me if Logan Airport was busy today.”

…

『 This is AA4012. Are there many planes on duty at Logan Airport today? Over. 』

『 This is Boston. Not many. You can land on time. Over. 』

…

Fu Cheng questioned the controller carefully, trying his best to get some clues from him that might not be in the recordings. For example, the pilot’s emotions at the time, or if there was any sentence implying that the plane was having trouble. However, he ultimately found nothing.

The controller: “I didn’t detect any problems during the call. Everything was business-as-usual, rigorous and quick.”

Fu Cheng looked at the compiled data on his computer. He nodded and stood up. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Shall I see you out?”

As the two walked to the door, Fu Cheng stopped. He turned around. “By the way, allow me to ask one more presumptuous question. I’ve already listened to the tapes you submitted. Since only the last hour was recorded, there’s no record of what happened before. The tape only contains the Captain’s voice. Did you ever hear the First Officer’s voice?”

The controller froze. He thought for a moment. “It’s like this: that day, the Captain was in charge of radar comms, so I would only communicate with the Captain and wouldn’t speak to the First Officer. That’s standard in the industry. Every call we had was very brief. I remember the general content; I did not speak with the First Officer.”

Fu Cheng nodded. “Alright, thank you.”

Leaving Logan International Airport, he returned to the investigation headquarters.

Just as Fu Cheng walked through the main gate, he saw workers using jacks to move some fragmented wreckage out the door and onto a truck.

Old Joseph was supervising nearby. Seeing Fu Cheng arrive, he waved.

Fu Cheng walked over. “What is this for?”

Old Joseph smiled. “Sending some fracture points to the lab to check for traces of explosives.”

Fu Cheng understood immediately. “Suspecting terrorists planted a bomb on the plane, and a mid-air explosion caused the crash?”

Old Joseph laughed and was about to speak when a clear, cold voice sounded from behind.

“Without the black boxes, what else can we do? We can only start with the wreckage remains. A bomb explosion is the first cause to rule out.” Zhuo Huan walked over. His gaze lingered on Old Joseph for a split second before turning to Fu Cheng. “Found something. Come take a look.”

Fu Cheng was surprised. “Me?”

“Yeah.”

Fu Cheng and Old Joseph followed Zhuo Huan into the warehouse. They navigated around various scattered fragments of aircraft wreckage until they reached the passenger cabin section.

The wreckage of AA4012 was remarkably complete.

Except for a portion of the fuselage washed away by ocean currents, the other parts hadn’t suffered too much impact and were preserved intact. Now standing before the wreckage of the left wing, Fu Cheng looked down. This massive left wing looked as if someone had snapped it in the opposite direction, lying across the ground in a twisted posture.

Zhuo Huan crouched down, and Fu Cheng crouched down with him.

“Look here.” Zhuo Huan pointed a finger at a scratch on the tip of the plane’s left wing. “This scratch is half a meter long. At the end of the scratch is a three-meter-long gash. The metal skin on its surface is curled outward, and the entire left wing is nearly snapped off. You’ve flown an A390. Based on your judgment… how do you think this was caused?”

Hearing this, Fu Cheng’s expression turned serious as he examined it closely.

“This is the wingtip area. To cause this kind of damage—a scratch without a fracture—it should be caused by friction against a solid surface. But the A390 crashed into the sea; there was no friction with the ground. Logically speaking, the moment the wingtip touched the sea surface, the surface tension of the water would be broken, and the plane would crash very quickly.” Pausing, Fu Cheng said, “But this scratch was caused by the wingtip dragging along the sea surface for a period of time. And looking further back…”

Zhuo Huan subconsciously followed the direction of his finger. Fu Cheng reached out to the right, his right hand happening to pass right before Zhuo Huan’s eyes. The extremely close proximity made Zhuo Huan freeze instantly. Even after that thin, slender hand had lowered, Zhuo Huan hadn’t reacted.

Fu Cheng didn’t notice Zhuo Huan’s distraction. He continued, “After this scratch, there is a large section of tears and fracture marks. Obviously, this should be the rupture caused when the left wing contacted the water surface first and was snapped by the water’s immense surface tension.”

Suddenly stunned, Fu Cheng looked up. “Mr. Zhuo, are you trying to say that this plane entered the water while flying sideways (banked)?”

If it hadn’t crashed into the sea sideways, the fuselage should have touched the water first, not the left wing!

Zhuo Huan snapped back to reality. He raised his eyes to glance at Fu Cheng, his voice lazy, seemingly not very focused. “Yeah. That’s my deduction too. You know a lot about the A390, so I wanted you to take a look as well.”

Slowly regaining his focus, Zhuo Huan said, “Since you deduce the same, then it’s confirmed—AA4012 underwent an unexpected roll while still in the air. Aside from that, look here.” Saying this, he looked up at Old Joseph. “You take a look too.”

Old Joseph crouched down as well.

The three of them looked at the tear together.

Zhuo Huan’s beautiful, clean fingers slid over the long tear in the plane. “The further back the tear goes, the wider the gap opens. This conforms to the laws of alloy fracture mechanics, but this degree of opening… I feel… there’s a problem.”

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