異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第127期:超重著陸

Investigators later surmised that the Avianca pilots must have assumed that ATC was jumping them to the head of the queue, in front of the dozens of other planes circling Kenedy.

過后調查人員曾猜想，阿維安卡的飛行員一定認為，ATC將優(yōu)先考慮讓他們著陸，將他們排在肯尼迪機場長龍般候降隊伍的最前面。

In fact, they weren't. They were just being added to the end of the line.

但實際上，他們沒有被優(yōu)先考慮，他們只是被排到隊伍的后面。

It was a crucial misunderstanding upon which the fate of the plane would ultimately rest.

這是個多么嚴重的誤解，這會導致飛機機毀人亡。

But did the pilots raise the issue again, looking for clarification?

但飛行員有沒有再次提起并進行求證呢？

No. Nor did they bring up the issue of fuel again for another thirty-eight minutes.

沒有，在后來的38分鐘內他們沒有再提起沒有燃油這件事。

To Ratwatte, the silence in the cockpit made no sense.

對于懷特瓦特來講，駕駛艙內的沉默簡直不可思議。

And as a way of explaining why, Ratwatte began to talk about what had happened to him that morning on the way over from Dubai.

為了表明他的想法，他談起早上從迪拜出發(fā)的飛行。

"We had this lady in the back," he said. "We reckon she was having a stroke. Seizing. Vomiting. In bad Shape.

他說：“機艙內有一位女士，我們猜她中風了，邊抽搐，邊嘔吐，情況非常糟糕。

She was an Indian lady whose daughter lives in the States. Her husband spoke no English, no Hindi, only Punjabi. No one could communicate with him.

她是位印度人，女兒住在美國，丈夫不會講英語，也不會講印度語，只會說旁遮普語，沒人可以與他交流，

He looked like he had just walked off a village of Punjab and they had absolutely no money.

他看起來好像是剛從旁遮普的鄉(xiāng)村出來，他們看上去很窮。

I was actually over Moscow when it happened, but I knew we couldn't go to Moscow.

這時候，我們正在莫斯科的上空，但是我知道我們不能去莫斯科。

I didn't know what would happen to these people if we did.

我無法預料如果我們去莫斯科會發(fā)生怎樣的事情。

I said to the first official, 'You fly the plane. We had to go to Helsinki.'"

我對我的副駕說，我們必須飛往赫爾辛基，你來駕駛飛機。”

The immediate problem Ratwatte faced is that there were less than halfway through a very long flight,

懷特瓦特面臨的首要問題是，他們的長途飛行才飛了不到一半的路程，

which meant they had far more fuel in the tanks than they usually do when it comes time to land.

這樣他們著陸的時候，油箱里的燃料重量會超出正常著陸的標準。

"We were sixty tons over maximum landing weight," he said.

他說：“比起最大著陸重量我們仍超重60噸。

"So now we had to make a choice. I could dump the fuel, but countries hated it when you dump fuel.

因此我不得不作出決定，我可以把燃料拋掉，但很多國家痛恨拋油。

It's messy stuff and they would have routed me somewhere over the Baltic Sea, and it would have taken me forty minutes and the lady probably have died.

因為會污染環(huán)境。此外我還需要飛到波羅的海，而這需要40分鐘的路程，但到那時那位女士很可能已經(jīng)去世。

So I decided to land anyway. My choice."

我決定無論如何都要著陸，這是我的選擇。

They couldn't use the automated landing system because it wasn't set up to handle a plane with that much weight.

那意味著飛機要“超重著陸”。而在這種超重的情況下著陸，飛機就無法使用自動著陸系統(tǒng)。

"At that stage, I took over the controls," Ratwatte went on.

“在這種情形下，我必須全權控制。”他繼續(xù)說道，

"I had to ensure that the airplane touched down very softly; otherwise, there would have been the risk of structure damage.

“我必須保證飛機在著陸時觸地輕柔，這樣才可避免飛機的結構損傷。