Flight to the Horizon, page 9
Chapter Ten
What a relief to take off her oxygen face mask after they leveled off at ten thousand feet. Ray had completed all the checklists, the jet was stable, and their remaining engine was running smoothly. Kerri took a deep breath.
She was worried about her passengers, even though George had assured her no one was badly hurt. As she looked around the cockpit for her paper flight plan, the yellow master warning light came on.
“What now?” Her eyes went to the center display screen, where she read “Fuel Imbalance.”
“That makes sense with only one engine running.” Kerri reached up to the overhead panel to use the fuel pumps so she could balance the fuel in the wing tanks and stared at the fuel-quantity display in disbelief.
“Ray, tell me what you see on the fuel quantity.”
“Center tank is zero, right-wing tank is zero, left-wing tank is five thousand pounds. Total fuel on board is five thousand. What the hell?”
“We’re losing gas, and we’re losing it fast.” She could see the digital display counting down. “The shrapnel from the engine must have punctured both wing fuel tanks.”
Not only had Kerri lost an engine and cabin pressure, but now she had a massive fuel leak. She punched some numbers into the flight management computer to confirm the mental math she’d done in her head. The answer was clear. A cold lump settled in her chest.
“We don’t have enough fuel to make it to Hilo.”
“What are you saying?”
“We’re going to have to ditch in the ocean.”
A cold, metal hand gripped Kerri’s insides. When she was in training, she’d seen disturbing videos of planes trying to land on water, and the attempts usually didn’t end well. Either the plane hit the water too hard and broke into pieces, or the aircraft cartwheeled and sank. Kerri couldn’t allow herself to think about these images. She had one job to do, and she would focus her mind and her body on that one task. She had to safely land this massive 767 in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
How much time do I have? She quickly calculated in her head when they would run out of fuel. With only one engine running, she would burn five thousand pounds in an hour. But she didn’t have an hour left, not with that fuel leak. Her best guess was thirty minutes until they ran out of gas and fell from the sky. She had to prepare for ditching and land the plane on the water while she still had control of the jet.
“Ray, we have fifteen minutes to get this airplane to a landing on the water.”
Ray sat in stunned silence.
“Ray, did you copy what I said? We are doing a water landing in fifteen minutes. Get out the ditching checklist, and let’s start working on that.”
Still appearing dazed, Ray said, “Yes, ma’am. I’ll get on that.”
Now Kerri had to brief George, the rest of the crew, and the passengers to prepare for ditching. She paused for a moment before she called him. In her entire life, Kerri never expected to have to make this call.
She pressed the PA button. “George, please come up to the flight deck.”
George entered the cockpit and stood ramrod straight as he listened to her describe their emergency situation. Then he nodded when Kerri said they had to ditch the aircraft in the water. “I’ll make sure everyone in the cabin is ready when we have to evacuate the airplane, Captain. Do you need anything else from me?”
“No. That’s everything. Call me when the cabin’s ready. One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“Make it quick. We only have fifteen minutes left.”
“Okay.” George left the flight deck.
* * *
“All flight attendants, come forward,” George announced over the PA.
Janine walked to the forward galley with the other six flight attendants.
“Captain Sullivan just informed me that we have a fuel leak and we aren’t going to make it to Hilo. We have to ditch the aircraft on the water, then evacuate the passengers into the slide rafts. Time remaining, fifteen minutes.” George stood silently before them, pausing as his words sank in.
Janine heard comments from her fellow flight attendants, who were clearly nervous and scared.
“George, are we going to be all right?” one of them asked.
“Look. I know none of us expected this when we came to work today, but here we are, in a very serious situation. We’ve all been trained on ditching procedures and emergency evacuation. The passengers are looking to us to remain calm and to get them safely off this jet and into the slide rafts. You’re all professionals, and I expect you to maintain your composure and do your jobs. Go back to your stations, get out your manuals, and let’s run our checklists. You have ten minutes left before landing. Let’s get to work.”
Janine felt like she’d been thrust inside a surreal disaster movie. This couldn’t possibly be real. She was trapped in disbelief. She pulled George aside. “Are we really going to make it?”
“Kerri Sullivan is the best captain I’ve ever flown with in my forty years as a flight attendant. If anyone can land this jet on the water, she can. We have to have faith in our training, just do our jobs, and get everyone off the plane. We’re going to get through this, Janine.” He gave her a brief hug. “Now, let’s get busy. We only have a few minutes.”
Inside Janine’s head, she was saying, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” She forced herself to put a calm expression on her face for the passengers, even though she was screaming inside. She had a lot to do in a very short period of time. She put her head down and performed her tasks as fast as possible.
She picked up the food trays and stowed them in the galley carts. When Janine tried to collect the wineglasses, Mr. Shapiro, in 3B, refused to give her his. She wanted to smash the glass on his self-important head, but she restrained herself. These people have no idea what’s ahead of them. Neither do I.
Just then, she heard Kerri’s voice and stopped to listen.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Sullivan. I need to update you on our situation. As you already know, we lost cabin pressure from a window failure. This window broke due to debris from the right engine, which disintegrated and sent metal pieces into the cabin. It looks like the engine shrapnel also punctured both our wing fuel tanks and we have a large fuel leak. We don’t have enough fuel to make it to Hilo. Because of this, I will be landing the aircraft on the water. When we come to a stop, we’ll be evacuating the aircraft into the slide rafts. I know this situation is very frightening, but it is absolutely essential that you follow the flight attendants’ instructions, because your life depends on it.”
Janine heard gasps and crying from the passengers as she forced down her own fear. She had a job to do, even if it was the last thing she’d ever do on this earth. She went through the cabin quickly, checking that everyone had their lap belts on. She directed the passengers to reach under their seats, put on their yellow life vests, and stow their loose items. One man continued to type on his laptop computer, ignoring her commands.
“Sir, you need to put that computer away.”
“Just a minute,” he answered, still typing as fast as he could.
Janine wanted to scream at him to quit being an idiot and put his fucking computer away. Instead, she leaned into his personal space and looked at him square in the face.
“You need to put this laptop away right now, not in a few minutes. We are landing on the ocean in ten minutes, and it’s going to be very rough. This laptop will be a flying projectile that could take your head off. Stow it now.” Her stern tone of voice meant business.
The man stopped typing, shrank in his seat, folded the laptop closed, and put it away. “Sorry.”
Janine continued to help people into their life vests, and then she stowed the cabin service items. She wanted to comfort the passengers who were crying, but she didn’t have time. Time seemed to be accelerating, and she didn’t have time for anything. She kept seeing Molly’s precious face in her mind, but she forced herself to keep working. The only way she would ever see her daughter again was if they survived this ditching and water evacuation. The lives of these passengers were in her hands, and Janine refused to allow any other thoughts to distract her.
George came to check on her. “How’s it going?”
“All the life vests are on, loose items stowed, and the cabin is secure.”
“Good. I’ll inform Kerri that the cabin is ready. Why don’t you review your evacuation commands and put on your crew life vest. Kerri will be giving us the ‘Brace for impact’ PA soon. You are in charge of opening door one-left after we come to a stop. I’ll open door one-right. Get back to your jump seat and strap in tight.”
Janine nodded. She would be responsible for opening the main cabin door after they landed on the water, making sure the slide raft inflated, and getting the passengers into the raft before the plane sank. The adrenaline buzzing through her made her hands shake.
Focus, Janine, focus. Please, God, let Kerri land this airplane safely.
* * *
“Read me the ditching checklist out loud, Ray.”
“We’re complete except for landing preparation.”
“Were you able to reach the Rescue Coordination Center for the ditching heading and sea condition?”
“No, sorry. I think we’re too low. I can call Trans Global 506 again and ask them to relay our position and heading.”
“Good idea. Do it now.”
While Ray was calling their company aircraft, Kerri mentally visualized the procedure for landing on water. She’d practiced this maneuver exactly two times in her life in the flight simulator, so she knew what it was supposed to look like. The chances were slim, at best, that a real water landing would look like what she’d seen in the sim. The biggest difference between a water landing and a normal landing on a runway was that the landing gear would be up, instead of down. She remembered that the visual landing picture was very different with the gear up versus down. She would be setting the jet down on its belly, with the wheels up, and she would be fifteen feet closer to the water at touchdown.
Her touchdown point would be a moving target on the ocean’s surface. She would have to account for the swells to land the plane. The Rescue Coordination Center was supposed to give her the wind direction at the surface, the height of the swells, and a heading to fly perpendicular to them. Kerri needed to fly this heading so the plane wouldn’t get swamped by the waves and sink before everyone could evacuate.
She took a moment to look out the big windows of her 767. The sky before her was still beautiful, with bands of pink and gold near the horizon. The fluffy white clouds beneath her once again reminded her of popcorn. She loved this view more than anything in the world. When her life was in turmoil, gazing down at the earth from this high altitude put everything in perspective. Her problems never seemed so big when viewed from the sky. Today, however, all she wanted was to be able to see this view again.
Kerri had dealt with in-flight emergencies before, during her military and commercial flying careers. The situation was always tense when you had an emergency, but her training and experience had gotten her through tough ones. She’d never had to deal with real multiple emergencies and never had to land the plane on something other than a paved runway. Never, that is, until now.
“Any luck on reaching the Rescue Coordination Center?”
“Not yet, Kerri. I’ll keep trying.”
As they descended toward the ocean, the puffy, white clouds before her had become a solid layer. She could catch only glimpses of blue water between the gaps in the clouds. Kerri wouldn’t be able to fully see the water until she’d penetrated this cloud deck, and then she’d need to quickly evaluate the sea conditions and figure out a landing heading.
“How are we coming on our checklists, Ray?”
“They’re all complete except for the final landing steps.”
“We don’t have any altimeter setting or navigation aids for this approach, so this will be a visual single-engine landing. The radio altimeter will give us the height above the water, and I need you to call out altitudes, in hundred-foot increments, starting at five hundred feet above the water. At one hundred feet, call my sink rate. I need to touch down with zero sink just as we land. The ground proximity warning system will be disabled, since the gear will be up, so we can’t rely on that.”
“Okay. Got it,” Ray answered, his voice shaky. Kerri needed his full attention and skill to back her up as she flew this landing.
“Ray, we’re going to be all right. We just have to stay focused and work together to land this plane on the water, then get everyone out. We’re passing five thousand feet, so let’s get our life vests on and complete the last steps of the checklist.”
Kerri reached into her seat back pocket to retrieve her orange Crew vest. She’d put it on many times during annual recurrent training, but she’d never had to wear it in the real aircraft before.
“Ray, you have the jet.” She jumped up out of her seat, pulled on her dark-blue jacket with the four gold stripes on the sleeves, and grabbed her round captain’s hat.
She handed Ray his hat. “Keep your hat with you and wear it in the raft. Did you bring your uniform jacket?”
“No, I didn’t. We’re supposed to be landing in Hawaii, so I don’t have it with me.” Kerri could hear an edge of anger in his voice. She’d spent her entire working life flying predominantly with men, and their first emotion was always anger. It didn’t matter if they were afraid, confused, hurt, or uncertain; their initial response was to get mad. Kerri didn’t have time to put up with that right now.
In her calmest voice, Kerri said, “Ray, I need you to hear me. Just back me up on the landing, and when we come to a stop, read the evacuation checklist. Then you’ll go back to the cabin, to door one-right, and assist the passengers into the raft. Do you copy?”
“Yes. I understand.” His voice sounded more normal, and he took a deep breath. Ray read the last checklist steps out loud as he accomplished each item. “Ground proximity gear switch, to override. Cabin, depressurize. Main outflow valve, fully closed. The checklist says to use flaps at thirty degrees for landing, but we’re single engine. How do you want to fly this, Kerri?”
“I plan to use flaps at twenty degrees, and then right before touchdown, I’ll call for flaps thirty. Call the cabin and make sure they’re ready.”
Ray rang the cabin, and then Kerri heard George’s voice over the cockpit speaker. “We’re all set.”
“I need to make one last radio call before we land. You have the jet, Ray. Continue the descent to fifteen hundred feet.”
“Roger. I have the aircraft.”
Kerri keyed her mike button. “Trans Global 506, this is 401, emergency.”
“Go ahead, 401.”
“Trans Global 401 will be landing in five minutes. 506, write down the following. Position, north two-six degrees, zero one minutes, decimal one. West one-four-one degrees, zero two minutes, decimal zero. Heading two-seven zero degrees. Speed two-one-zero knots. Passing two thousand feet.”
“Trans Global 401, this is 506. We copy your position. I’ll pass your information on to the Rescue Coordination Center. They report no vessels in your immediate area at this time. San Francisco Radio has activated the Automated Merchant Vessel Report system to notify all the ships in the vicinity of your position. Anything else we can do for you?”
“No, 506. That’s it. Thanks for your help.”
“Good luck, 401.”
Kerri descended into the cloud layer and looked at her flight instruments. Her attitude indicator showed wings level. Radio altitude, two thousand feet above the water. Airspeed too high. Kerri gently pulled her one remaining throttle to idle, pulled back on the yoke to slow down, and called, “Flaps, one.”
She slowed to two hundred knots, still in the clouds. Kerri brought the nose of the jet up to two degrees high, set her descent rate to seven hundred feet per minute down, and checked her rudder and pitch trim. Make this just like a normal approach. Nice and stable. Please, God, let me see the water.
“Flaps, five. Speed, one-eighty.”
Ray moved the flap lever to the correct position, then rotated the airspeed knob on the mode control panel.
“Approaching fifteen hundred feet,” he said.
“Landing check. Flaps to twenty. Set target speed.” Kerri looked at her wind indicator. It showed fifteen knots of wind from the west. Since she couldn’t see any waves yet, she adjusted her heading to fly into the wind at a forty-five-degree angle.
Ray turned the airspeed knob and read the final checks. “Speed brake, down. Gear, up. Flaps, twenty. Standing by for final flaps.”
Kerri looked down at her comm panel and pushed the PA button.
“This is the captain. Brace for impact. Brace, brace, brace.”
“One thousand feet.”
Come on, come on, let me see it!
Just then, the clouds thinned, and Kerri looked out her front window. “Oh, shit.”
Before her were roiling waves ten feet high, foaming whitecaps, and gusting wind. She pushed the throttle up to slow her descent.
“The swells are from my left. Set heading to three-six-zero. I’m going to fly perpendicular to the swells and try to land on top of one.”
The white, fluffy popcorn clouds had turned into a gray, ominous layer above her, with big waves beneath her. Kerri continued her descent and watched the waves, trying to find their pattern.
“Five hundred feet.”
“Flaps to thirty. Check target speed.”
“Flaps, thirty. Target speed, set. Landing check, complete. Sink rate, seven hundred down.”
Kerri was stable and configured for landing. The waves looked bigger and bigger as she neared them.
Ray called out, “Four hundred, three hundred, two hundred.”
A golden beam of light pierced the cloud deck, lighting up the sea. A shimmering spot of smooth water appeared before her. Kerri couldn’t believe her eyes. It was her runway. She kicked in a little right rudder to align the nose of the jet with the glassy water.
