UAAG CH32

On the nearly seven-meter-long wreckage of the left wing, looking from the tip towards the root, there were initially messy white scratches about half a meter long, followed by a gap about three meters long. On both sides of this huge gap, along the cracked metal cross-section, dense black cracks extended outwards like spider webs, resembling the wrinkles of cracked earth.

When a plane crashes into the sea, it inevitably causes the fuselage to break and sustain damage.

At first glance, these damages all seemed perfectly normal, but after Zhuo Huan’s reminder, everyone realized something was amiss.

Old Joseph had years of experience in air crash investigations. He sensed something wrong, stroking his chin as he said, “Reid, do you mean that this fracture pattern is incorrect? A plane crashing into the sea happens in an instant. Even if the plane barely managed to maintain flight on the sea surface for a few seconds, the moment it fell into the sea, it was destined to be destroyed by the ocean’s powerful hydrodynamic forces. This is a crash on the sea surface, not a forced landing on a river surface; a Miracle on the Hudson is impossible.”

The ocean is not a river.

In 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 encountered a bird strike shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York, causing all engines to fail. Forced by necessity, the plane had to make an immediate emergency landing, and the captain ultimately chose to land on the Hudson River. This forced landing was extremely successful, with no fatalities and only a few injuries.

This forced landing event was called the Miracle on the Hudson.

But if this event had occurred on the sea surface, the Miracle on the Hudson would have been absolutely impossible.

In the process of movement, seawater generates enormous tidal energy, wave energy, ocean current energy, etc.

Landing a plane on calm water is fundamentally no different from landing on concrete. Not to mention landing on a surging vast ocean. The powerful hydrodynamic forces would undoubtedly tear the plane apart, without exception.

Old Joseph: “As for the fracture surface, I can’t see anything wrong with the naked eye. The wingtip entered the water, so the further back, the larger the gap, which is also very consistent with common sense. At the same time, the cracks on both sides accompanying this gap would also expand. These all conform to the fracture toughness of metal. Where do you think something is wrong?”

However, Old Joseph didn’t expect that after he asked this question, Zhuo Huan didn’t give an answer immediately.

Fu Cheng and Old Joseph both looked at him, but Zhuo Huan frowned slightly. His gaze scrutinized the fracture on the left wing carefully for a long time before he finally looked up: “I can’t be sure, but my intuition tells me this crack is filled with a certain sense of strangeness.”

Fu Cheng: “What kind of strangeness?”

“Should it be like this?”

Fu Cheng looked at him: “Teacher Zhuo?”

Zhuo Huan: “Let’s calculate first.”

Investigation Headquarters, Conference Room.

Su Fei: “Is he human?”

Fu Cheng: “…”

The punk teenager turned his head in dissatisfaction and said, “Brother Fu, right now you should follow up with ‘Doesn’t look like it’.”

Fu Cheng: “…”

A moment later, he said expressionlessly, “Doesn’t look like it.”

Su Fei nodded and sighed, “This is probably a beast in human skin, right?”

Zhuo Huan’s tall back paused slightly. After a contemptuous cold snort, he said without looking up, “Cancel his room reservation and change it to a standard room.”

Although no name was mentioned, Lina knew this must be directed at her. She smiled slightly and said, “Okay.” Saying that, she picked up her phone, preparing to cancel the room.

Su Fei ran over in horror, holding down her hand that wanted to make the call, turning his head to glare at Zhuo Huan angrily, “Everyone is staying in suites, why should I stay in a standard room! It’s not like you’re paying, the NTSB is footing the bill!”

Hearing this, Great Master Zhuo stopped looking down to write formulas and calculate. He raised his head, leaned back in his chair, and presented Su Fei with an arrogant chin—not a double chin.

“Because I am the person in charge of UAAG.” Then he looked at Lina, “Book him any small motel on the street.”

Su Fei: “Are you trying to kill me!”

Zhuo Huan: “Tch.”

Being mean-mouthed was probably just like this.

Su Fei’s face was covered in tears, regretting that he shouldn’t have been mean-mouthed in front of Great Master Zhuo. He kept acting coquettishly towards Lina, begging her not to cancel his suite: “It costs over ten thousand a night! I haven’t stayed enough yet! I’m dead tired every day, I rely on lying in my comfortable massage bathtub and happily doing a SPA when I go back to survive like this.”

Lina smiled gently: “Why did you have to say it in front of Reid, silly child? Behind his back, you can say whatever you want.”

Great Master Zhuo: “…”

“Hmph.”

Actually, this matter couldn’t be entirely blamed on Su Fei’s mean mouth.

Fu Cheng quietly looked at a certain man and the things in front of him.

On a large conference table, countless A4 papers were laid out. Each paper was filled with dense and complex formulas and calculation processes written in black ink pen. Measuring the fracture data and various physical properties of the plane’s left wing wasn’t complex. But trying to discover that trace of strangeness from it was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

First of all, they didn’t know exactly what was wrong with the gap in the plane’s left wing. So they had to consider it from every aspect.

Could it be pre-existing metal fatigue?

Did the left wing break before the plane hit the water, and the original fracture was just covered by new cracks because of the crash into the sea later?

Or could the plane’s left wing have been cut by something?

For example, that time half a year ago when Fu Cheng flew from New York to Boston, the plane’s wing was cut by engine debris.

There were many, many unpredictable possibilities.

So in order to find that point of strangeness, Zhuo Huan began detailed calculations. From morning until now, he had been sitting at the table calculating for a full four hours. Various physics formulas and mathematical formulas flowed smoothly from his pen without a hint of stagnation.

Like conducting a grand and elegant symphony, with every raise of his hand, he peeled symbols from the score, and with a cold attitude that brooked no refusal, forcefully placed them onto the paper. In this way, he converged them into a majestic symphony of theory.

No wonder this man could participate in the World Physics Conference.

This thought suddenly flashed through his mind. Before Fu Cheng could come back to his senses, he heard Zhuo Huan say, “Pour me a cup of coffee.”

Instantly sobering up, Fu Cheng looked around. Unknown when, Lina had already left the conference room, and Su Fei naturally followed her, begging her not to change his room.

Seemingly as a matter of course, the black-haired young man stood up, walked to the pantry, poured a cup of coffee, and handed it to Zhuo Huan.

“Thanks.” Slightly raising his head, his gaze paused on the hand holding the coffee cup. Realizing this wasn’t Lina, Zhuo Huan looked up at Fu Cheng. Their eyes met, and after a long while, Zhuo Huan raised an eyebrow: “You’re not leaving?”

Fu Cheng pulled up a chair and sat down: “Just happened to need to look at some materials. Will I disturb you, Teacher Zhuo?”

Staring fixedly at the young man in front of him, his gaze lingered on those beautiful eyebrows and eyes for a moment.

Zhuo Huan smiled: “No.”

Although he had always been single-minded when working and never disturbed by the outside world.

But having someone good-looking staying by his side wasn’t a bad thing either; at least they could purify the air and be pleasing to the eye.

This sitting lasted for a whole day.

Fu Cheng rubbed his sore shoulders, looked up, and found that Zhuo Huan was still calculating the fracture data of the plane’s left wing.

He casually picked up a piece of scrap paper that Zhuo Huan had crumpled into a ball and thrown into the wastebasket, opened it, and started reading.

“…Griffith energy relationship formula?”

“You know it?”

Fu Cheng looked up: “Yeah, saw it somewhere before, probably seen it in theory class a long time ago.”

Flying a plane isn’t driving a car. Pilots not only have to learn how to fly the plane, they also have to learn various theoretical knowledge. From the most basic aerodynamics, electronic and electrical engineering principles, to ergonomics, meteorology… everything.

Of course, it certainly doesn’t include metal fracture mechanics.

Which pilot would look for trouble and go learn what to do if the plane breaks. Encountering this kind of situation, learning how to parachute first is more practical.

Zhuo Huan calculated with his head down while saying indifferently: “That was calculated assuming the plane had metal fatigue, but the answer is wrong. Its left wing didn’t break in a static state; it wasn’t brittle fracture, it was plastic deformation.”

Fu Cheng smiled slightly.

…Pretending to understand.

Fu Cheng: “Teacher Zhuo, any clues?”

Zhuo Huan: “What do you think?”

Fu Cheng: “Want more coffee?”

“Mm.”

Going to pour another cup of coffee, when Fu Cheng returned to the conference room, he saw that Zhuo Huan had already stood up. He was holding a piece of draft paper, standing under the bright incandescent light, raising his hand, looking at the content on the paper through that light.

The bright light made the white paper transparent and clear. It passed through the thin paper, shining on the man’s cold and handsome face. Zhuo Huan narrowed his eyes slightly, thin lips moving, letting out a low sigh.

At this moment, he turned his head and saw Fu Cheng standing by the door.

Like a spring breeze brushing over a steep ice field, confident and proud light converged into starlight in his eyes. He raised his chin towards Fu Cheng, waving the draft paper in his hand, and the paper made a crisp sound in the air.

“Oh, found it.”

Fu Cheng looked at the man in front of him, lips parting, but no sound came out.

A moment later.

Fu Cheng: “Congratulations.”

Hearing that the investigation had made new progress, Lawrence immediately went upstairs to the conference room.

As soon as he entered the room, he looked anxiously at Zhuo Huan: “Patrick, did you find any new clues?”

Zhuo Huan raised his eyes and glanced at him: “Don’t rush, sit down.”

Lawrence hurriedly pulled up a chair.

Lina had already input all the data Zhuo Huan calculated earlier into the computer and projected it onto the screen.

Zhuo Huan stood up and began to explain based on the content on the screen.

“According to the deformation amount and compression rate of the metal, when American Airlines Flight 4012 entered the water, the surface tension of the ocean was destroyed and exerted a reverse force on the fuselage itself…” The voice stopped abruptly. Looking at the confused expressions of Su Fei and others and Lina’s polite smile, Great Master Zhuo suddenly felt lonely at the top. Sighing in his heart, he skipped the process directly and said, “In short, based on preliminary calculations, excluding gravitational acceleration and the plane’s own airspeed, when AA4012 crashed, the plane was in a state of acceleration, rushing into the sea. Moreover, this acceleration reached at least 7m/s.”

As soon as this sentence came out, the conference room fell silent abruptly.

Old Joseph spoke up: “Are you saying that this plane… actively accelerated into the sea?”

Great Master Zhuo raised an eyebrow: “I think I spoke very clearly.”

The crowd was in an uproar.

Su Fei also found it incredible: “Accelerating into the sea, does that mean the pilot hijacked the plane, suicide?!”

Zhuo Huan glanced sideways, about to speak, but Fu Cheng’s voice rang out before him: “Teacher Zhuo doesn’t mean that, but this is a possibility. What is known at present is that when this plane rushed into the sea surface… it was in almost maximum acceleration state.”

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