On May 14, Sichuan Airlines 3u8633 on the Chongqing Lhasa flight mission broke its windshield during the flight, the captain operated properly, and all personnel made a safe forced landing at Chengdu airport. CCTV's "face to face" program on May 19 interviewed the captain of Sichuan Airlines 3u8633 to recover the situation at that time.
The captain's judgment and operation saved the lives of an airplane man. It reminds us of a disaster film in the United States in 2016: Captain Sally. During the flight, the engines on both sides stalled. Under the operation of Captain Sally, he made a successful forced landing at sea and all the passengers were saved. If you are interested, you can review it.
At an altitude of nearly 10000 meters, the windshield suddenly burst. Strong wind, low temperature, loss of pressure, lack of oxygen, the whole plane fell rapidly & hellip& hellip; With more than 100 passengers in the cabin and the mountains below the plane, how can the heroic crew complete the miracle of forced landing? CCTV news "face to face" exclusively interviewed the crew of Sichuan Airlines flight 3u8633.
Reporter: was there anything unusual that morning when I was performing this task?
Liu Chuanjian: nothing unusual. I lived in the company that day and went to the preparation room on time to make all preparations. The information was obtained by my second captain communicating with the front desk. I read all the information. The weather was very good and there was no problem.
Reporter: what is your normal procedure after getting on the plane in a conventional way?
Liu Chuanjian: external inspection of the aircraft and internal inspection of the aircraft.
Reporter: is this what the captain has to perform every time?
Liu Chuanjian: I have to do what I have to do every time. This time I checked it and there is no problem.
About 40 minutes later, the plane has reached the southeast edge of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. The visibility at high altitude is good. You can see the mountains under the plane at an altitude of 9800 meters. Liu Chuanjian has flown more than 100 times since he came to Sichuan Airlines in 2006. According to the previous practice, the plane will fly for a period of time at this altitude.
Reporter: what was the state of you and the co pilot at that time?
Liu Chuanjian: everything is very good. It's very relaxed. The weather is very good. I feel it's a very pleasant thing to complete the task today. It's such a mood.
But sudden changes always happen when you are caught off guard. At about 7:06 a.m., the plane in steady flight suddenly made a loud noise.
Liu Chuanjian: there was no difference in the whole early stage before the first explosion. Reporter: you said there was an explosion? Liu Chuanjian: Yes, there was an explosion during the cruise. Reporter: where did the sudden explosion come from? What was your first judgment at that time? Liu Chuanjian: the first judgment at that time was that there was an explosion and a burst sound. The co pilot and I found something different when the explosion occurred. We will check it immediately and feel abnormal. At the same time, we found that the front windshield of the co pilot was cracked.
Reporter: how loud was the explosion? Can you describe the feeling of the sound? Like popcorn in the past, is that the sound?
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, the sound of popcorn, at least.
Reporter: the sound is so high. In a confined space, this decibel is very large.
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, at that time, it was a state of amazement, so my action was very fast.
Reporter: but in this emergency response, what is the first measure you should take as a captain?
Liu Chuanjian: touch and feel the situation of our glass with your hands. Just as I said earlier, our glass has several layers, and the structure of each layer is different. If the outer layer and the middle layer have three layers of glass, if it is inside, it is written in the book that there are cracks, which tells us that its stress-bearing layer has been damaged.
Reporter: what was your feeling when you touched the glass?
Liu Chuanjian: I feel like rowing. I touch it gently with my fingers.
Reporter: is there a crack?
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, there are cracks. It's the feeling of rowing and cutting hands. I know that the inner layer must be broken.
Reporter: the inner layer is broken. What does it mean to you?
Liu Chuanjian: it means that the bearing capacity of the aircraft has decreased, but it is not necessarily bad. My textbook tells me that its bearing capacity will decrease.
Reporter: did you communicate with the co pilot?
Liu Chuanjian: there was no communication. At this time, I took the microphone and went down at the same time. I told our ATC that I would go down and return to Chengdu.
Reporter: Why did you make such a decision?
Liu Chuanjian: its bearing capacity is damaged, and there may be a failure of the aircraft.
The windshield glass of civil aircraft usually has three layers: outer layer, middle layer and inner layer, and its toughness and compressive capacity are two or three thousand times that of ordinary glass. According to the general theory, even if the inner glass is broken, the middle and outer glass can still withstand twice the pressure difference inside and outside the engine room. However, due to professional sensitivity, Liu Chuanjian quickly made a decision to return to the nearest Chengdu airport without time to discuss with other crew members.
Reporter: how far was it from Chengdu?
Liu Chuanjian: it's about 150 kilometers.
Reporter: have you surpassed Chengdu or not arrived in Chengdu?
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, yes.
Reporter: after more than 100 kilometers in Chengdu, return to Chengdu.
Liu Chuanjian: Yes.
In hindsight, from the moment of the accident, every decision is crucial, and every second of time becomes precious. Because for the aircraft flying at high speed, a little hesitation will make the aircraft fly a further distance in a short time, making the next self rescue far away or impossible. Liu Chuanjian turned the nose, grabbed the microphone and sent a message to the ground control department that "the windshield is cracked, we have decided to alternate to Chengdu".
Call recording: Chengdu, Chengdu, 8633 in Sichuan, please tell me, there is a bit of failure now. I apply for lower altitude. 8633 in Sichuan, keep it at 8400, keep it at 8400. I'm going to return. Now the windshield is cracked. The windshield is cracked, right? Is 3u8633 returning to Chongqing, returning to Chengdu, alternate to Chengdu, right? Yes, 3u8633 received it. You keep it at 8400 first.
Reporter: what about the instructions from the tower?
Liu Chuanjian: No. Liu Chuanjian: because I finished reporting my words, maybe he closed it as soon as I finished speaking, but the whole glass burst at this time.
Reporter: at the moment of reporting?
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, when I finish, it may not be finished, but it will explode at this time. It exploded three times and didn't respond. At that time, it must be the kind of stress. Maybe I opened my eyes at that time.
Reporter: do you want to protect the first instinct?
Liu Chuanjian: without protection, I didn't think it would explode at all. Maybe I heard a sound, instinctively blinked or something. When I opened my eyes and saw him.
Reporter: when I saw the co driver?
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, they have been hung there. Half of the body is outside the window.
Reporter: was the whole lower body outside the window or the upper body?
Liu Chuanjian: upper body, upper body is outside the window.
Reporter: isn't there a seat belt and fixed on the upper body?
Liu Chuanjian: when our co pilot was cruising, we could relax a little. Then he only fastened the seat belt of this leg and did not fasten the shoulder belt, so he was sucked out. There was a pressure difference between the inside and outside at the time of the explosion. At that time, the pressure difference was about 7:00.
Reporter: will people be sucked out immediately?
Liu Chuanjian: I went out in a minute.
The windshield glass of the right front seat of the cockpit suddenly burst, and the broken glass scattered outward, which is equivalent to that the aircraft broke a big hole at an altitude of nearly 10000 meters. The huge pressure difference inside and outside the cabin instantly sucked the upper body of CO pilot Xu Ruichen out of the window.
Reporter: too sudden?
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, very suddenly.
Reporter: for you, as the captain, under such special circumstances as the co pilot, has there been such a design in the emergency plan before?
Liu Chuanjian: really not. It all depends on the first reaction. As soon as he went out, when I saw him out there, I actually wanted to reach for him.
Reporter: what do you want to catch?
Liu Chuanjian: Yes, I want to reach out to catch him. As soon as I can't reach it, the speed of the plane is very high, which may be about 800 kilometers. One of me can't get through. The second one is that I really can't reach him. What is the state of the plane now? I want to keep the state of the plane well, so I operate the plane.
Reporter: but could you confirm his safety at that time?
Liu Chuanjian: I'm not sure what will happen. I didn't dare to think at that time. What I thought at that time was to control the state of the plane and don't let the plane fall.
Reporter: but how sure were you at that time? Liu Chuanjian: in fact, I was really not sure at that time. In fact, I was finished shouting at that time. At the moment when the windshield glass burst, while the cockpit lost pressure, a series of chain reactions followed, and the cabin environment changed rapidly. Liu Chuanjian: the biggest change is that the strong wind is blowing on me and there is a sense of tear on my face. Reporter: it's like cutting with a knife, isn't it? Liu Chuanjian: I felt that my whole person was deformed. Reporter: can you open your eyes? Liu Chuanjian: you can open your eyes. Reporter: were you wearing sunglasses? Liu Chuanjian: wearing sunglasses, the whole plane was shaking violently. There was no sound at that time, but it was very loud after a while. Reporter: the whole fuselage? Liu Chuanjian: Yes, the whole fuselage is shaking. The instrument can't see clearly. It's shaking. Reporter: is there any display on the instrument? Do all functions still exist? Liu Chuanjian: there is a display on the instrument on my side. There is a display on the side where I operate the aircraft, but I was not sure that it is the correct display. Reporter: why not? Liu Chuanjian: because after the explosion, many equipment did not work. The electronic instrument display system told me that the faulty equipment was filled with countless things. In the two screens, all the faults were displayed.
At an altitude of nearly 10000 meters and a speed of 800 kilometers per hour, the aircraft that lost the windshield of the right front seat of the cockpit seemed to have broken a big hole. The violent strong wind seemed to blow people flat, the flight control component panel was blown over, many flight instruments could not be used normally, and the whole aircraft was shaking violently. What happened in the cockpit was also quickly transmitted to the aircraft cabin. At that time, the second captain Liang Peng was resting in the cabin.
Liang Peng: I saw the door burst open.
Reporter: which door did you say?
Liang Peng: cockpit door.
Reporter: is the door connected to the passenger compartment?
Liang Peng: Yes.
Reporter: burst?
Liang Peng: it bounced away. There was a lot of wind.
Bi Nan: there was a roar and turbulence at the same time. All the oxygen masks in the cabin fell off.
Reporter: does it fall off automatically?
Bi Nan: Yes.
Later, some passengers recalled that nearly an hour after the plane took off, the originally stable plane suddenly bumped violently, and then blew into a strong airflow, like a dust storm, which made people's eyes unable to open, the cabin suddenly darkened, harsh sounds and passengers' screams sounded around, the plane fell rapidly, and many items were blown to the ground of the cabin.
Passenger: suddenly the light went dark, the stewardess and the trolley flew into mid air, and then fell down again. Hearing a bang, the plane plummeted down and all the lights went out. Each row dropped its oxygen mask.
Facing the oxygen mask that suddenly landed in front of them, many passengers almost died