FINAL eXAms - British Airways Virtual

Airways magazinethechecklistA Short Story byChristopher ElliottTurning off the intercom, Paul sat back and relaxed. He knewthey would more than likely have to stay over at the alternate andrealised he wouldn’t be seeing his family for a few days longer thananticipated. It would be fine. The time was 1513z.Captain Paul Berkeley had been a pilotsince his childhood. Whilst at school, hehad become a proficient glider pilot soaringin and around Goodwood aerodrome beforegaining his Private Pilot’s License andjoining an airline training scheme. He hadnever encountered a major problem in theair before; yet, he was highly trained and askilled airman. He always said he enjoyedthe view from his office window and, perhaps,this made him too comfortable. Nevertheless,he was regarded in high esteemby his colleagues.Hand flying the twin jet through thesun soaked blue toward St. John, Paul kepta careful eye on his airspeed, altitude, attitudeand last remaining engine. The gaugeswere all pointing to where they shouldbe and his descent profile was perfect. Paulwas wearing his standard issue uniform ofwhite shirt, gold epaulets; black tie andtrousers, appearing as the ever proud professional.He reached forward and pointedat the navigation display.The display was black with magentalines and a compass rose at the top. Therewas an arrow denoting wind direction witha reading for wind speed on the display andSt’ John’s airport was just showing at theedge of the outer range rings. First OfficerJohn Rigby looked over and said, “I see it,Paul. 183 nautical miles to go.”“Okay, “ Paul said, “Whilst I holdher steady here, John, would you go backand see what’s going on in the cabin? Wehaven’t heard from them and I’m concerned.”John said, “Are you sure that’s agood idea? There may be someone onboardholding hostages.”Paul smiled. “Don’t worry, John,” hesaid. “If there was someone on-board theywould have made it for the cockpit by nowor called us with their demands.”John pressed a button to electronicallymove his seat back. “Alright,” he said.“If I am not back in five minutes then assumethe worse.”“It’s just procedure with this airline.The internal comm’s may have beenknocked out too by whatever is happeningto this aircraft. Am sure it’s nothing. Besides,we can’t be that unlucky to have anengine problem and a hijacking.”John said, “You’re right, that wouldbe unlikely. See you in a minute,” arosefrom his seat and left the cockpit slammingthe security door shut behind him. Paulwas alone.On-board a twin-jet airliner, there are twomachines, called Packs, which provide airto the cabin to maintain pressurisation andsupply oxygen to the passengers and heating.They run from bleed air taken from theengines, whilst they are running. Earlierin the flight, Paul has turned off one of thePacks due to overheating. This meant thatonly one was running - this was now malfunctioningdue to the shut down engine.Throughout the cabin, the occupantshad been falling unconscious after a drunken-likebout of Hypoxia. As John enteredthe cabin, he would have quickly sufferedfrom the lack of oxygen in the cabin, whichwas creeping forward toward Paul in thecockpit, searching for the cockpit door andthe gaps around it to suck out the remainingoxygen. If Paul wouldn’t realise this, hewould be unconscious in minutes. Deathwas on the horizon.As Paul watched the instruments,he realised that 14 minutes had passedsince John had left the cockpit. Thinkingthis was strange; Paul reached and pressedthe Flight Attendant’s call button. But, ofcourse, no one answered it.The last air in the cockpit beganleaving and Paul started to feel a littledrunk. He began laughing and was becomingincreasingly unable to think. Theaircraft was rolling left to right more andpitching up and down as Paul struggled tocontrol the jet airliner full of passengers.The speed was decreasing and before longthe plane would be falling straight down ina stall. An alarm sounded and a messagedisplayed on the screen, CABIN PRESSURE.Paul, not knowing, just hit the alarm cancelbutton; but, the message was still displayedas he felt more and more drunk.In the oxygen starved cabin, somepeople had been starved of oxygen for longerand had been unconscious, unable tosave themselves. A few of the passengersand a crew member began to turn blue asthey passed where they had slumped. Therewas nothing anyone could do to save themnow. Paul needed to start the other Packand cross-feed the air from the running engineto the malfunctioning pack if anyonewas going to survive.To be continued...