On June 24, 1982, a Boeing 747 flying in the air suddenly heard the panicked cries of passengers, and everyone thought that they were bound to die. What the hell is going on?
It turned out that the Boeing 747 set sail from the United Kingdom and headed for New Zealand. With 15 flight attendants and 248 passengers on board, the flight was supposed to be a perfectly ordinary aerial maneuver, but when the plane flew over the Indian Ocean, problems arose.
During the routine inspection, the flight attendants found smoke in the cabin. At first, the flight attendant thought that the passenger was addicted to smoking, and couldn't help but secretly smoke. However, after careful inspection, there were no passengers on the plane who smoked at all, so how did the smoke in the cabin come about?
Before I could figure out where the smoke came from, new, more serious problems arose. Co-pilot Roger discovered that there was something wrong with an engine, and after communicating with Captain Eric, he immediately began to investigate the cause. However, the misfortune was that in less than 10 minutes, the other three engines of the plane stopped working one after another.
The crew immediately panicked, this Boeing 747 aircraft has 4 engines, under normal circumstances, if only 1 engine does not work, it will not affect the normal flight of the aircraft. However, now all 4 engines are turned off, which means that the aircraft has lost its power source, and an aircraft that has lost power will fall directly from a height of 10,000 meters.
To make matters worse, the plane is now over the Indian Ocean, some distance from New Zealand. The aircraft is now at an altitude of about 11,000 meters, and in the absence of power, the aircraft will glide forward horizontally for every 1KM of vertical descent.
According to the current altitude calculation, before the plane falls, it can glide forward for another 165 kilometers at most, and it cannot reach land at all.
Captain Eric realized this and quickly contacted the Indonesian air traffic control to report the emergency the aircraft was currently facing. Indonesian air traffic control immediately decided to direct the plane to the nearest airport in Jakarta.
Eric immediately turned the nose and began to fly in the direction of the Jakarta airport. But when the plane flew some distance, Eric discovered a fatal problem: in the middle of the plane and the Jakarta airport, there was a mountain peak, and with the plane's current declining flight condition, when it reached the vicinity of the mountain, the plane was bound to hit the mountain.
In order to avoid the tragedy of the plane crashing, Eric had to turn the nose of the plane again and prepare to make a forced landing on the sea at any time. The passengers on the plane had already sensed the abnormality at this time, and the flight attendants informed the passengers of the current emergency situation, after all, such a serious problem, the passengers had the right to know.
Some timid passengers began to cry bitterly, they had never encountered such a situation of nine deaths. The crew comforted the passengers while assisting them in putting on life jackets in preparation for the upcoming crash landing. In fact, the crew was also panicked, but they could not show it, otherwise the plane would be chaotic.
As the planes continued to descend, many passengers thought they were doomed, and some even began writing suicide notes. However, at this moment, Eric unexpectedly found that one of the engines had resumed operation, and it turned out that the crew had been starting the engine non-stop from the beginning.
A strong desire to survive and a high sense of responsibility for the passengers allowed the crew to restart the engines again and again, and finally after the 50th operation, 1 of the engines regained power. Before long, 2 more engines returned to normal, which at least ensured the normal flight of the aircraft.
Eric immediately flew the plane and headed back in the direction of the Jakarta airport. Eventually, the plane landed safely at the Jakarta airport, and all passengers and crew were safe and sound.
After everyone was evacuated from the plane, the maintenance staff began to overhaul the aircraft. They examined the engine very closely and found some remaining volcanic ash in the blades of the engine.
The engine of the aircraft was turned off, which is closely related to volcanic ash. It turned out that the plane passed a volcano called Garongan that day, and happened to encounter a volcanic eruption. A large amount of volcanic ash floated to a height of 10,000 meters, and although the aircraft had radar detection, the radar could not detect the ash because the volcanic ash did not contain any moisture.
Volcanic ash attaches to the blades of the engine, causing the temperature of the engine to rise sharply, eventually causing the engine to shut down.
Later, the engine resumed operation because during the flight, on the one hand, part of the volcanic ash was shaken off the blades of the engine, and on the other hand, the temperature of the volcanic ash was reduced, and the temperature of the engine was also reduced. The crew restarts the engine uninterruptedly, so when the temperature returns to the normal range, the engine can work.
It is worth mentioning that researchers have long overcome the problem of volcanic ash detection, and now people are safer than before when flying.