Chapter 4 ✦ We think it is a fuel leakage
Two hours of deep sleep seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and He Jianzhen woke up to the sound of a knock.
“Are you awake?” Tang Litao said from outside.
That was when He Jianzhen remembered where he was. He quickly got out of bed and opened the door. “What time is it?”
Tang Litao gave a low laugh without answering, stretching out a hand to smooth his sleep-rumpled hair.
He Jianzhen’s face turned hot, and he looked at him awkwardly, unable to speak properly, “You… you wash up first, I’ll go… I’ll get some hot water.”
In fact, he was happy inside that Tang Litao didn’t regard him as his boss. He desperately needed this kind of comfort right now.
After tidying up a bit, the two went out of the office. He Jianzhen couldn’t get rid of the logistics department’s housekeeper habit. Without paying attention, he walked ahead to press the elevator button, waiting for Tang Litao to go in first, and following behind him.
Tang Litao looked at him in the floor-to-ceiling mirror of the elevator. His tired and pale face was crumpled up, tightly frowning.
He hadn’t adapted to the role of “interim general manager” yet. He was out of his depth, so of course he felt panicked.
“Don’t overthink,” Tang Litao reached out, shaking him, “It’s all just work.”
At this time, he would still consider his feelings. He Jianzhen was sincerely moved, “Thank you1[He Jianzhen is always very polite to Tang Litao, and he uses the formal you throughout.].”
Tang Litao laughed, “About time to change the method of address. You’re my boss now.”
He Jianzhen didn’t react.
Tang Litao said smilingly, “First name, alright?”
Someone who had just cooled down immediately became cooked again. He Jianzhen had a big red face, the old guy took the opportunity to tease people.
Tang Litao was still persuading earnestly, “This is called intimacy, which shows that the monarch and the ministers have a good relationship. Otherwise, they will all think I am an old official still mourning the previous regime2[遗老孤臣, an idiom referring to an old minister who loses power after the change of dynasty and remains loyal to the previous monarch.], embarrassing the new leader3[下不来台 (lit. “can’t get off the stage”), means you’re not giving the other party “steps” down from a position, not giving the opportunity to compromise in a way that allows them to retain face.]“.
Of course He Jianzhen didn’t believe his nonsense. People who worked in marketing were born to sell a deer as a horse.
“That’s right, your status is different now, so maybe you don’t find me worthy anymore,” Tang-zong sighed fakely, “He-zong is young and promising, there are big batches of newcomers to pick from, us outdated old goods should be self-aware and step back a little…”
He Jianzhen was recited by him until his heart dried out. He lowered his head, “…Litao4[Given their difference in status and age, calling him by first name sounds quite intimate.]…”
He couldn’t see Tang Litao’s eyes in the mirror, wanting to nail him straight to the wall.
Outside, the sky was shining, horse hoof white with the first light of dawn. Chen Xi was already waiting in the lobby. When he saw Tang Litao come down with He Jianzhen, a look of surprise crossed his face.
He Jianzhen was guilt-ridden and pretended not to see it, “Tang-zong will come with us.”
Although he was nervous, he knew how to pretend, and his pretending had also reached a certain level.
They arrived at the reservoir exactly on time, at half past five. In the woods, it was darker than outside, filled with fog and eerily silent. Long, thin tree shadows stretched from the shore to the lake, and dark reflections in the reservoir floated on the water. The police pulled up a tight cordon to keep out the peanut gallery. On the shore, divers and experts were discussing the salvage plan.
“He-zong,” the captain of the criminal investigation team seemed to be in a good mood, “You came just in time, we found the plane!” The diver beside him reported the situation, “We determined the exact location of the plane an hour ago. In the end, we found the main section of the plane wreck down in the bottom, at the middle of the reservoir. At present, experts are inspecting the damage, the detailed report might take a little longer. Looking at the general situation, it’s very serious. Both the left wing and tail have fractures, the fan blades of the left engine are broken, there are also varying degrees of burn damage throughout the fuselage5[Main body of the plane.].”
Being able to find the plane was already an important breakthrough. He Jianzhen had some hope, “What about the black box6[Actually a bright orange box, also known as the flight recorder. It records the flight history, through flight data and cockpit voice recordings, so the circumstances of an aviation accident can be investigated after the fact.]?”
“It hasn’t been found yet.”
“Is there a specific rescue plan?”
“The rescue plan needs to be determined based on the specific situation of the cabin.”
“What does that mean?”
“Generally speaking, there are two types of rescue plans for plane crashes. If the cabin has a complete opening and isn’t sealed, then the rescue team can directly enter it to rescue; if the cabin is sealed, or there isn’t a relatively complete opening, then the body of the plane has to be sawed open first, then the cabin is opened, and then the rescue takes place. However, this method might not be possible underwater. It might be necessary to bring up the plane first before sawing. Underwater salvage isn’t easy, and we need to bring over specialized machines and a professional salvage team. Now we have to wait for the detailed inspection of the engine room.”
11 hours had passed since the crash. By the time they got the plane out from underwater, the daylily dish was cold7[The origin of this term is said to come from Qidong County, where daylilies were served as the last dish in a banquet. So people would say that the daylilies were cold, if someone came too late.].
The divers brought over the photos they had just taken underwater. The bottom of the reservoir was dark and gloomy, and the huge body of the plane looked like the white skeletal remains of an animal. It was stuck in the mud at an oblique angle, with its nose down and its tail raised. The tail and left wing were obviously broken. Part of the severed wing was nowhere to be found. The outer skin of the fractured area had burst open, exposing a bunch of steel tendons and metal bones outside. The other wounds were also black, scorched until they were unrecognizable by the fire.
Even though He Jianzhen was mentally prepared, he was still shocked when he actually saw the scene in real life. The chances of surviving an airplane crash were already small, then there was an explosion and the plane fell into the water. After being destroyed like this, it would be a miracle to survive.
Tang Litao, who was standing next to him, took the photo and patted him on the shoulder.
“If this wasn’t an accident, what kind of hatred did they have?” He Jianzhen said with his voice lowered.
Tang Litao threw him a glance, “Who told you it wasn’t an accident?”
He Jianzhen repeated what the captain of the criminal investigation team said the day before. Until now, that inspector hadn’t been found.
Tang Litao made a sound of acknowledgment, “That is indeed suspicious.”
He Jianzhen was anxious, “It was either an accident or a murder! If it gets out, what will outsiders say? What will happen to the company’s reputation? What kind of dragon’s pool or tiger’s den8[A metaphor for a very dangerous place.], the chairman and the general manager were murdered at the same time, is this a normal company?”
On the contrary, Tang Litao was amused by his appearance, and only thought he was cute, “Yes, yes, yes, you are right.” He wiped the sweat from his nose, “Look at how anxious you are, what other people say is other people’s problem. You’ve been in the company for over ten years and you don’t know how things are yourself? High or low, you’re already a general manager now. Don’t keep blabbering, it’s time to learn some gravitas.”
He Jianzhen was tormented, wondering how he could still be as calm as a fair day.
“How is the investigation of the cause of the fire going? Do you know where the failure is now?” Tang Litao asked.
The diver found an expert to answer his question, “According to our initial investigation, we think it is a fuel leakage. There are signs of rupture in the fuel pipe. It is likely that the fuel pipe leaked throughout the flight, which led to a fire, which caused the pipe to rupture and the fuel tank to explode.”
“The fuel pipe on the left?”
“Well, that’s why the left wing was destroyed like this. The two fuel tanks were blown to pieces, and you basically can’t see their original shape. A large amount of fuel must have leaked.”
“There’s a fluid pressure alarm for fuel leakage. The captain should have noticed it in advance.”
“That’s what I’m saying, it’s really weird.”
Once they got to the “fuel pipe on the left”, He Jianzhen couldn’t keep up with their conversation. His blank expression exposed this shortcoming, his lack of specialized technical knowledge. At this point, the decision to bring Tang Litao seemed particularly apt.
Tang Litao explained as plainly as possible, “Like a car, an airplane is also equipped with a fuel tank. The fuel tank is connected by the fuel pipe to deliver fuel to the engine, which provides power for the airplane to fly. Generally speaking, civilian airliners have three fuel tanks. These three fuel tanks are mainly distributed under the flight wings of the aircraft, on both the left and right. So if the fuel tank explodes, it will definitely cause damage to the wing. You see, the left wing is broken like this, because the two fuel tanks on the left are both completely finished.”9[So this explanation is a little confusing, (I think) because Tang Litao is counting the “number of tanks” in a strange way. First of all, I have to say that I’m no plane expert, so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt. I just searched around a bit on the internet. When he says there are three fuel tanks, what he means is that there are two main tanks, one tank on each wing, and another fuel tank in the centre in the fuselage. This is the distribution of tanks on the Airbus A319. The basic principle of how the tanks are placed should be symmetry, since the plane needs to maintain proper distribution of weight. When he says two tanks on the left wing blew, what he means should be that the main tank and the outer / reserve tank were both destroyed. As for what he means by “mainly distributed under the flight wings”, I believe he means that some planes also have fuel tanks in other places, such as the “wings” (stabilizers) on the tail. I included two diagrams of the Airbus A319 and the Boeing 747 for reference, in the translator’s notes.]
He Jianzhen understood, “There was a fuel leak first, then the fuel tank exploded?”
“If there’s a fuel leak, the fuel will catch fire when it touches other high-temperature components. The fire will spread until it reaches the fuel tank. A large amount of fuel is stored inside the tank, so it will definitely explode.”
“What kind of alarm is there for a fuel leakage?”
“It’s called a fuel pressure alarm system10[So I googled it and it seems like (at least according to aviation stack exchange) commercial planes don’t have an alarm for leaking fuel. I also looked at this page on the Airbus website about A320 planes, which doesn’t say anything about an alarm either. In addition, this paper says “Currently, there are no fuel leak detection systems installed on commercial aircrafts, to detect fuel tank leakage, while only a small number of more recent aircraft, have a fuel monitoring system, that generates a fuel leak-warning message in cockpit in the case of fuel imbalance between the tanks.” That being said, from Tang Litao’s description and what I could glean by searching in Chinese, it seems like he is talking about a low fuel pressure warning signal. So in the case of low fuel pressure and high flow, it would be likely that the plane is leaking fuel. If anyone actually understands this stuff, please leave a comment!]. It’s a set of equipment that monitors the fuel tank’s real-time fuel consumption. If the fuel is used too quickly, it will suspect a fuel leak, and raise an alarm to remind the captain to investigate. Once the captain notices that the plane is leaking fuel, he can take action. For example, isolating the fuel pipe where the leak first occurred. The fuel injection lines connected to each tank are independent, without any connections to each other, just to allow for isolating individual lines, and preventing the leakage from expanding. As long as the isolation is timely, the chance of a fire can be greatly reduced. And after isolating one fuel tank, the plane can continue to use other fuel tanks until the forced landing is successful.”
He Jianzhen understood, “So, you guys think the alarm system should have gone off at this time?”
“With such a large amount of fuel leaking, it’s abnormal if the alarm didn’t sound.”
“Is it possible that the fuel pressure alarm system malfunctioned?”
“There is also this possibility.”
“The captain actually contacted the control tower to request an emergency landing when the fire broke out, but he said at the time that he was investigating the cause of the fire, indicating that he didn’t know the fire was caused by a fuel leak. If the alarm system sounded, he would definitely know about the fuel leak. That is to say, the alarm system didn’t go off. So of course, he didn’t know the cause of the fire.”
“When the plane is lifted out of the water, check the alarm system and we will know.”
The overall picture of the plane crash began to surface slowly from underwater.
Now it was basically certain that the fire was caused by a fuel leakage. Then the alarm system failed, so the fuel leakage was not discovered promptly, delaying the best time for self-rescue. By the time the captain noticed the fire, the situation was already out of control.
There were three important questions here.
First, why did the plane leak fuel? Second, the hydraulic pressure alarm system also failed at the same time as the fuel leak. Was this a coincidence? Or was it caused by a human factor? Third, why did the captain fail to make an emergency landing in the end? Even if the left engine was lost, it didn’t mean that an emergency landing was impossible. It wasn’t as if there weren’t cases where both engines failed and the plane still managed to land. The captain assigned to the chairman’s private jet was an old hand. If he operated with skill, it was still possible to turn the tide11[扭转乾坤 (niǔ zhuǎn qián kūn), lit: turn heaven and earth].
All three questions had to be answered before they could fully understand how the plane crashed. Not one could be missed. But they still needed more evidence and the aircraft inspection reports to understand in detail.
(On January 15, 2009, after taking off, American Airlines Flight 1549 encountered a bird attack, and both engines shut down. In the end, the captain made an emergency landing on the Hudson River, and all 105 people on board survived.)
“Who are these people?” Tang Litao pointed to the people without uniforms loitering around the police cordon.
The police officer said, “Many villagers from nearby came to rubberneck. We already drove away several groups but we can’t get rid of them all. Earlier, several relatives also came by and were very emotional. We sent them back. It’s relatively quiet now, it was even more wild last night.”
“Who were the relatives who came by?”
“A Madame Wu came surrounded by a dozen people. She was very excited, crying and shouting, and she even wanted to go into the water. If we didn’t give her information, she would almost faint on the spot. After we finally sent them away, another elderly person came a while later. He didn’t leave his name, just saying that he was a relative. He couldn’t get any answers so he left by himself.”
He Jianzhen expected Madame Wu to come, but he didn’t expect that other people would also get the news. “An elderly person? Came alone?”
“He looked about 60 years old, with some gray hair, not tall, but dressed quite smartly, in a polo shirt, dress trousers, and leather dress shoes. And he drove here by himself. He walked around the water for a long time, sighing constantly. It was hard to watch. I was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to hold on, so I wanted to find a young fellow to send him back, but he refused.”
“What questions did he ask?”
“Just the same old questions, have we found the passengers, have they been rescued yet, why did the plane crash… We can’t randomly tell people details about the case, so we didn’t answer his questions. Fortunately, he didn’t make a scene. Otherwise, we would have to spend all night comforting relatives.”
He Jianzhen and Tang Litao exchanged glances. If the chairman’s family members wanted to come, it wouldn’t be this kind of scene. Madame Wu had already visited, so whose relative could it be?
Other than the two big leaders, there were also two secretaries and a marketing receptionist on the plane. These were all considered low-level employees. They suffered from a work accident resulting in the loss of life. If their family members got the news, they would be heartbroken. They would either go straight to the police station or make a scene at the company. How could they walk around the reservoir a couple times and leave just like that?
Part of the reason Chen Xi suppressed the news was because he was worried that the victims’ families would behave irrationally. The company had to take responsibility for the deaths of these employees, and also had an obligation to comfort their families properly. But they didn’t have a specific plan to handle the situation yet. If their family members started making a fuss during this period, impulsively doing something stupid like contacting the media, adding oil and vinegar12[添油加醋 (tiānyóujiācù), idiom meaning exaggerating a situation or adding details that don’t exist.] and putting it on the internet, the company’s reputation would truly be at stake. This meant, the larger the number of relatives who found out in advance, the more challenging the situation would be for the company.
The two were thinking the same thing. Tang Litao told the police officer, “If there are any more relatives who come, you must ask for their personal information and tell them to contact the company. I will leave you someone’s contact information and allow them to contact this person. The company will definitely take responsibility to the end.”
The police officer joked, “I’m afraid you will have to pay a lot of money?”
Money was only a small matter. Tang Litao smiled politely, “It should be paid.”
They walked around part of the reservoir. The reservoir was huge, and the further they went upstream, the fewer people came to rubberneck. When they reached the end of the closed road, the police told them that this was where the plane had landed on the water.
The water surface was calm, with a cold light. Separated by a layer of fuzzy mist that looked like a mourning veil, even the little bit of light looked dim. The deeper one looked, the more there seemed to be a kind of dead qi, as if the plane had not fallen by itself, but was swallowed by a man-eating fog.
There was a very subtle “click” behind him, and Tang Litao abruptly turned, staring sharply at the photojournalist who was shooting.
“Go!” He pulled He Jianzhen with one hand, blocking He Jianzhen’s face with his other sleeve, and turned to leave.
The reporter had recognized Chen Xi, “Chen-zong! I heard that the plane that fell into the water was your esteemed13[贵, Super polite way of saying “your”, lit. “treasured, expensive”.] group’s14[Corporate group.] chairman’s private jet. If I may ask, is it true? Why did you come here today? Are you available for an interview?”
Chen Xi is the company secretary. He regularly meets investors and the media. It is totally normal for him to be recognized. The police came over to stop the reporters, but they couldn’t stop the cameras from shooting, thick as rain. He Jianzhen fled in a panic, under the escort of two people, one on each side.
They stepped on the fallen leaves in the forest, crackling and exploding under their feet, sometimes heavy and sometimes light, like stepping on a chain of ignited artillery fire.
T/N: So, one thing I really struggle to translate (and probably will be a recurring issue in this story) is Tang Litao’s dialogue. Tang Litao speaks in a very distinctive way, which I guess is supposed to show his super-gentle mild-mannered personality. Then when he gets mad, there’s a big contrast and everyone is shocked.
He frequently uses female-coded sentence particles, which is a bit unusual considering his age, gender, and status. He also uses verb reduplication a lot, which has a softening effect on his speech. In English, you have a similar workplace phenomenon where women will frequently say things like “I just wanted to ask…” “I feel like…” “I just think…” “If that makes sense…” and so on. However, most of these “softening” phrases do so by expressing uncertainty, so it’s not quite the same. The effect of the way he speaks isn’t really uncertain, it’s just very nonthreatening.
He also has a number of other speech peculiarities… Anyway, I’ve resorted to leaving translator’s notes thanks to my lack of skill here.
(Boeing 747)
- 1[He Jianzhen is always very polite to Tang Litao, and he uses the formal you throughout.]
- 2[遗老孤臣, an idiom referring to an old minister who loses power after the change of dynasty and remains loyal to the previous monarch.]
- 3[下不来台 (lit. “can’t get off the stage”), means you’re not giving the other party “steps” down from a position, not giving the opportunity to compromise in a way that allows them to retain face.]
- 4[Given their difference in status and age, calling him by first name sounds quite intimate.]
- 5[Main body of the plane.]
- 6[Actually a bright orange box, also known as the flight recorder. It records the flight history, through flight data and cockpit voice recordings, so the circumstances of an aviation accident can be investigated after the fact.]
- 7[The origin of this term is said to come from Qidong County, where daylilies were served as the last dish in a banquet. So people would say that the daylilies were cold, if someone came too late.]
- 8[A metaphor for a very dangerous place.]
- 9[So this explanation is a little confusing, (I think) because Tang Litao is counting the “number of tanks” in a strange way. First of all, I have to say that I’m no plane expert, so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt. I just searched around a bit on the internet. When he says there are three fuel tanks, what he means is that there are two main tanks, one tank on each wing, and another fuel tank in the centre in the fuselage. This is the distribution of tanks on the Airbus A319. The basic principle of how the tanks are placed should be symmetry, since the plane needs to maintain proper distribution of weight. When he says two tanks on the left wing blew, what he means should be that the main tank and the outer / reserve tank were both destroyed. As for what he means by “mainly distributed under the flight wings”, I believe he means that some planes also have fuel tanks in other places, such as the “wings” (stabilizers) on the tail. I included two diagrams of the Airbus A319 and the Boeing 747 for reference, in the translator’s notes.]
- 10[So I googled it and it seems like (at least according to aviation stack exchange) commercial planes don’t have an alarm for leaking fuel. I also looked at this page on the Airbus website about A320 planes, which doesn’t say anything about an alarm either. In addition, this paper says “Currently, there are no fuel leak detection systems installed on commercial aircrafts, to detect fuel tank leakage, while only a small number of more recent aircraft, have a fuel monitoring system, that generates a fuel leak-warning message in cockpit in the case of fuel imbalance between the tanks.” That being said, from Tang Litao’s description and what I could glean by searching in Chinese, it seems like he is talking about a low fuel pressure warning signal. So in the case of low fuel pressure and high flow, it would be likely that the plane is leaking fuel. If anyone actually understands this stuff, please leave a comment!]
- 11[扭转乾坤 (niǔ zhuǎn qián kūn), lit: turn heaven and earth]
- 12[添油加醋 (tiānyóujiācù), idiom meaning exaggerating a situation or adding details that don’t exist.]
- 13[贵, Super polite way of saying “your”, lit. “treasured, expensive”.]
- 14[Corporate group.]