Flying Too Close to the Sun, George Jehn [freda ebook reader txt] 📗

Erik cut him off. “We have an engine out. We’ll be going straight out ‘til we get the flaps up.”

“Roger. All traffic will be cleared. Inform us if you require any other assistance. The emergency trucks will be standing by,” the controller quickly added. “Runway 22 Left is the active landing runway; it’s ten thousand feet long, with the wind from two zero-zero degrees at six knots. Will an ILS to 22 Left be acceptable?”

Christina nodded her head in the affirmative. Erik presumed because of the poor weather they would have to make an instrument landing approach or ILS. “We’ll expect an approach to 22 Left.”

As taught, Erik grabbed the engine failure checklist. As the airspeed increased Christina performed Woody’s job by retracting the flaps while Erik read the checklist aloud.

“Throttle, idle,” he read.

“Idle,” Christina’s immediately replied, pointing to the number three engine throttle.

“Start lever: cutoff. Engine fire handle—pull,” he said aloud. These combined emergency actions shut off the fuel and insured the closure of all the failed engine’s bleed air valves so no fumes would enter the aircraft. Next, Erik had to disconnect the number three generator constant speed drive, rendering it useless. During his schooling the instructor had constantly stressed this was the most crucial emergency procedure step because if he made a mistake and disengaged the wrong one, the remaining generator would overload and plunge the cockpit into total darkness. The pilots’ would have no instruments and without them they would crash. He was extra careful and disengaged the correct one.

While ensuring the completion of all his required items, Erik noted a mistake he’d made by not turning off the air conditioning unit on the failed number three engine and opening the bleed air switch for number two. So, with a slight hand motion and a muted clicking sound, he corrected the error. They ran through the remaining items by the book, with Christina performing them and Erik verifying her actions. “The engine failure checklist is complete,” a perspiring Erik announced.

“Tell the flight attendants we have an emergency and are returning to Boston,” Christina instructed Woody in a loud voice, “and tell ‘em to brief the passengers.”

Suddenly, Woody snapped to, picked up the mike and rang the flight attendant call button. “We’ve got a serious problem and are returning to Boston. Prepare the cabin for an emergency landing.”

“I heard a loud noise. What’s going—?”

“Just do as I say.”

Ruppel anxiously broke in. “How many souls and how much fuel are on board?”

Christina hated the use of the term souls. It was as if the passengers were already dead and on their way to heaven or hell. She swore it would be a cold day in the latter before that happened while she was in command. “Tell ‘em there are a hundred and forty passengers on board and be certain to use the word passengers,” she told Woody, “and twenty-four thousand pounds of fuel.” Woody did as instructed.

Ruppel picked up the bright red emergency hotline going directly to the Massachusetts Port Authority police and informed the official-sounding voice that answered, “We’ve got a serious one in progress. A Shuttle Air 727 with a hundred and forty souls and twenty-four thousand pounds of fuel has an engine out and is returning for landing. Send your emergency and fire fighting equipment along with all the security personnel you can muster to both ends of runway 22 Left. Now!”

The guy started to ask something, but Ruppel hung up.

While Flight 1540 was radar vectored on to the downwind leg of the 22 Left traffic pattern, Erik completed the landing data card, using the required thirty-degree flap setting for a two-engine landing. He asked, “Will we have to conduct an emergency evacuation after landing?”

“I hope not,” Christina replied. “Inform the flight attendants there’s a chance of that, but don’t order it unless one of us tells ‘em to.” Christina knew there were usually many injuries if passengers used the escape slides that popped out of the plane’s emergency exits like giant yellow tongues when opened. Erik did as directed.

“Assume the bracing position,” Christina announced over the PA, briefly wondering what might be going through the minds of the terrified, now hunched-over passengers who had no control over their destinies.

“This bird feels different on two engines,” she muttered when turning on to final approach. She cranked in the frequency of 109.9 for the Runway 22 Left ILS, a landing system that provided vertical and horizontal guidance to touchdown. This was a challenging maneuver in poor weather and even more so with only two engines. She silently prayed they weren’t the victims of sabotage because there might be additional problems.

“Let’s run through the engine failure final checklist. If you notice anything overlooked, speak up.” As Erik and Woody began reading the checklist Christina ordered, “Landing gear down.” Woody and Erik double-checked everything while Christina flew the precise profile called for in the flight manual. She constantly made minor corrections in heading and rate of descent, always keeping the V-shaped command bars on the flight director dead-centered, meaning they were right on course. “We’re not taking it around for any reason,” Christina stated after the gear extended normally. “I don’t like the looks of number two engine. It’s running hotter than normal.” While glancing at the number two engine indications she could feel the hammering of her heart as it pounded up against her breastbone. Would number two continue to operate normally?

A supervisor and four other tower workers huddled around Ruppel, watching the tiny green blip on the radar screen that represented so much. Out of the corner of his eye Ruppel saw the huge door to the red-and-white firehouse open. Fire-fighting equipment, several ambulances and a number of other vehicles came wheeling out with sirens wailing and strobes flashing. As Ruppel monitored Shuttle Air’s progress it evoked memories of Swissair flight 111, a MD-11 jumbo jet that had crashed some time prior. The Swissair pilot had reported smoke in the cockpit enroute