by Sarah Lotz
Then we had the one that I’d say was the most controversial. I’m talking about the Sun Air incident. The rumours that were going around about the cause of that crash were hard to contain–most notably the fallacy that Captain Seto was suicidal and brought the plane down deliberately. On top of this, the Japanese minister of transport’s wife said publicly that she believed aliens were involved. There was real pressure on us to sort that out asap. We had the CVR, which indicated a loss of hydraulics, and we know from the black box that the aircraft was effectively brought down by shoddy workmanship. The failure to follow basic repair procedures to the tail section resulted in rivets giving way. The structural integrity of the fuselage was compromised, resulting in explosive decompression some fourteen minutes into the flight. The rudder was damaged and the hydraulics were lost, and when this happens, it’s just about impossible to steer the aircraft. Pilots fought with that baby as hard as they could. Gotta admire them for that. We ran comparative tests in simulators and no one has been able to keep it in the air as long as they did.
Course, we had to field a ton of questions at the press conference, lots of the reporters wanted to know where the bright lights a couple of the passengers said they’d seen came from. Could have been any number of things. More than likely lightning. That’s why we made the transcript of the CVR recording public asap, to stop those rumours in their tracks.
The following transcript, taken from the Sun Air Flight SAJ678 Cockpit Voice Recorder, was first published on the National Transportation Safety Board��s website on 20 March 2012.
Capt–Captain
FO–First Officer
ATC–Air Traffic Control
Transcript commences at 21h44 (fourteen minutes after take-off from Narita airport).
FO: Passing flight level three three zero, captain, that’s a thousand foot to go. Looks like it should be nice and smooth at three four zero, not much CAT forecast.
CAPT: Good.
FO: Do you have—
[A loud bang. Depressurisation alarm sounds.]
CAPT: Mask! Put on your mask!
FO: Mask on!
CAPT: We’re losing the cabin, can you control it?
FO: The cabin is at 14,000 already!
CAPT: Go to manual and close the outflow valve. Looks like we’ve got a decompression.
FO: Ah, Captain, we need to get down!
CAPT: Try again.
FO: The valve is fully closed, it’s no use–I can’t control it!
CAPT: Have you closed the outflow valve?
FO: Affirmative!
CAPT: Okay, understood. Tell ATC we are starting an emergency descent.
FO: Mayday, mayday, mayday–SAJ678 commencing emergency descent. We’ve had an explosive decompression.
ATC: Copy that. Mayday SAJ678, you can descend, there is no other traffic to affect you. Standing by.
CAPT: I have control. What is our grid mora?
FO: Level 140.
CAPT: Disconnecting the auto-throttle, dial in flight level 140.
FO: Flight level 140 set.
[Captain is on the intercom.]
CAPT: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are starting an emergency descent. Please put on your oxygen masks and follow the cabin crew’s instructions.
CAPT: Commencing emergency descent. Closing thrust levers, deploying speed brake. Read the emergency descent checklist.
FO: Thrust lever closed, speed brake down, heading selected, lower level selected, start switches to continuous, seat belt signs on, pax oxygen switch on, squawking 7700, ATC notified.
CAPT: Can’t control the heading–she’s yawing to the right. I can’t get the wings level!
FO: [expletive] Rudder or aileron?
CAPT: I’ve got full left aileron, but she’s not responding!
FO: Master caution hydraulics. I am cancelling the light. We’ve lost all hydraulics, we’ve got system A, and system B low pressure lights on! I’ll get the QRH and read the hydraulic checklist.
CAPT: Get me some hydraulics back!
FO: [expletive]
CAPT: I’m going to take some more thrust on three and four engines.
FO: It looks like the standby system is gone too. The hydraulic quantities are all empty!
CAPT: Keep trying.
FO: We’ve got 2000 feet to level off.
FO: 1000 feet to level off!
[Sound of altitude warning horn.]
CAPT: I’m stowing the speed brake and taking some more thrust on numbers one and two.
FO: The nose is dropping–pull up!
CAPT: She’s not responding! More thrust to slow the descent.
CAPT: Okay. She’s levelling off–still can’t control the heading. Keeps going to the right.
FO: Try and take more thrust on three and four.
CAPT: Okay. More thrust on three and four…
CAPT: It’s still not helping–she’s still rolling to the right!
ATC: Mayday SAJ678, what is your heading?
FO: Mayday SAJ678 we’ve lost all hydraulics, we will come back to you.
CAPT: We’ve got no rudder!
FO: We are going to have to go to manual reversion!
CAPT: [expletive] Feels like we’re in manual reversion already! I am struggling to control. Let’s see if we can get some of the speed off–300 knots.
FO: The nose is dropping again!
CAPT: Is there an airfield close to us?
FO: The—
CAPT: Give me more thrust on three and four!
[Sound of GPWS, whoop whoop, pull up, whoop whoop, pull up, too low terrain, too low terrain, whoop whoop, pull up, whoop whoop, pull up, too low terrain.]
CAPT: Full thrust all four… pull up! Pull up!
FO: [expletive]
CAPT: Pull up! Pull up!
[Recording ends.]
The following article was published in the Crimson State Echo on 24 March 2012.
END TIMES PREACHER STARTS HUNT FOR ‘FOURTH HORSEMAN’
At a recent press conference in Houston, Dr Theodore Lund, one of the driving forces behind the Evangelical End Times Movement, told a gathering of the world’s press that: ‘The fourth horseman is out there and it’s only a matter of time until he is found.’ Dr Lund is referring to the theory, first aired by a backwater Texan preacher, that The Three miracle children who survived Black Thursday’s devastating events are possessed by the Riders of the Apocalypse, sent by God to usher in the End Times. The theory is based on the last words of Pamela May Donald, the only American citizen on board the plane that crashed into the notorious Aokigahara ‘suicide forest’ in Japan. Dr Lund and his followers are adamant that there is no other explanation for The Three’s so-called miraculous survival, and believe that various global events, such as unprecedented floods in Europe, a drought in Somalia and the escalating situation in North Korea, are all signs of the impending end of the world.
And now Dr Lund has made the extraordinary statement that there is another child–a fourth horseman–who survived the doomed Dalu Air flight that crashed in Cape Town, South Africa. Citing the recently published Dalu Air passenger list, Dr Lund said that there was only one child on the flight who was close to the same age as the three children who survived the other disasters virtually unscathed–a seven-year-old Nigerian boy named Kenneth Oduah: ‘We strongly believe Kenneth will prove to be one of God’s harbingers.’
Dr Lund is undeterred by the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s definitive statement that there were ‘categorically no survivors of Dalu Air Flight 467.’
‘We’ll find him,’ he said. ‘It was chaos down there after the crash. Africa is a messy place. The child could easily have got lost or wandered off. And when we do find him, it will be all the proof those who have not yet entered Jesus’ fold will need.’
When questioned what he meant by this, Dr Lund replied: ‘You don’t want to be left behind when the Antichrist comes, you’re going to experience suffering worse than you can
ever imagine. As it says in Thessalonians, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,” and Jesus could call us to him any day now.’
REWARD 200,000 US Dollars!!!
For the discovery of Kenneth Oduah, a seven-year-old Nigerian passenger travelling on the Antonov cargo and passenger plane that crashed into Khayelitsher [sic] Township, Cape Town, South Africa on 12 January 2012. It is believed that Kenneth left the children’s home where he was taken after the crash and may currently be living on the streets of Cape Town.
According to his aunt, Veronica Alice Oduah, Kenneth has a large head, very dark skin and a crescent-shaped scar on his scalp. If you think you know of his whereabouts, please contact findingkenneth.net or call +00 789654377646 and leave a message. Normal rates apply.
PART FIVE
SURVIVORS
MARCH
Chiyoko and Ryu.
(Translator Eric Kushan notes that he has chosen to use the Japanese term izoku in the transcript below, instead of the rough translation ‘families of the bereaved’ or the more literal translation, ‘families left behind’.)
Message logged @ 16.30, 05/03/2012
RYU: Where have you been all day? I was getting worried about you.
CHIYOKO: Six izoku came today.
RYU: All at once?
CHIYOKO: No. Two came together in the morning; the rest came separately. So tiring. Mother Creature is always saying we have to treat the families with respect. I know they’re in pain, but how does she think Hiro feels having to listen to them all day?
RYU: How does he feel?
CHIYOKO: It must be really boring for him. They all shuffle up to him and bow, and then they all ask the same thing. ‘Did Yoshi, or Sakura, or Shinji or whoever suffer? Did they say anything before they died?’ Like Hiro would know who these people are! It creeps me out, Ryu.
RYU: That would creep me out, too.
CHIYOKO: If they come when MC is out, I tell them to go away. MC always lets them know that he’s still not speaking, not that this seems to make any difference to them. But today, while MC was in the kitchen preparing tea, I did an experiment. I told them that he does actually talk, but he’s very shy. I told them that he’s always saying that there was no panic or horror as the plane went down and that no one suffered except for the American woman and the two survivors who died in hospital. Was that evil of me?
RYU: You told them what they wanted to hear. If anything, it was kind.
CHIYOKO: Yeah, well… I only said it because I wanted to get them out of the house. I can only serve so much tea and wear my ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ face for so long. Oh, I meant to tell you. You know that most of the izoku who come here to see Hiro are ancient. Well today a younger woman came. Younger as in she could walk without a stick and didn’t look shocked when I didn’t serve the tea in exactly the right way. She said she was the wife of the man who sat next to the American.
RYU: I know who you mean… Keita Eto. He left a message, didn’t he?
CHIYOKO: Yeah. I re-read it after she left. It basically said that before he got on that plane he was suicidal.
RYU: Do you think his wife knew how he felt before he died?
CHIYOKO: Well she certainly knows now.
RYU: That must hurt. What did she want to know from Hiro?
CHIYOKO: The usual. If her husband had acted bravely when the plane went down, and if he’d said anything else apart from what he’d left on the message. She asked this in a matter-of-fact manner. I got the impression she was really just curious to see Hiro rather than wanting reassurance. Like he’s some kind of exhibit. It made me mad.
RYU: They’ll stop coming soon.
CHIYOKO: You think? Over five hundred people died in the crash. There are hundreds of families who might still want to see him.
RYU: Don’t think like that. At least now they know why the plane did crash for sure. That might help.
CHIYOKO: Yeah. Perhaps you’re right. I hope it gives the captain’s wife some peace.
RYU: She really got to you.
CHIYOKO: She did. I’ll admit that I think about her often.
RYU: Why do you think that is?
CHIYOKO: Because I know what it’s like. To be shunned, to have people saying terrible things about you.
RYU: Did that happen to you when you were in the States as well?
CHIYOKO: You really like digging for information, don’t you? But to answer your question, no, I was not shunned when I lived in the States.
RYU: Did you make friends there?
CHIYOKO: No. Just acquaintances. You know I find most people dull, Ryu. That includes Americans. Although I know you admire them.
RYU: I do not! Why do you think that?
CHIYOKO: Why else are you so interested in my life there?
RYU: I told you, just curious. I want to know everything about you. Don’t get mad. _|7O
CHIYOKO: Ai! The attack of the ORZ again.
RYU: I knew that would cheer you up. And just so you know… I am very happy that the anti-social ice princess thinks I am worth talking to.
CHIYOKO: You and Hiro are the only two people I can stand being around.
RYU: Except you’ve never met one of us and the other one doesn’t talk back. Do you prefer that? The silent treatment?
CHIYOKO: Are you jealous of Hiro, Ryu?
RYU: Of course not! That’s not what I meant.
CHIYOKO: It is not always necessary to talk to make yourself understood. You’d be amazed how much emotion Hiro can express by just using his eyes and body language. And yes, while I admit it’s soothing to talk to someone who can’t answer back, it’s also frustrating. Don’t worry, I am not about to choose the Silent Boy over you. Besides, he’s taken a liking to Waratte Iitomo! and Apron of Love, which I know you would never do. I hope it passes.
RYU: Ha! He is only six.
CHIYOKO: Yeah. But those shows are for moronic adults. I don’t know what he sees in them. MC is worried what the authorities will say if he doesn’t go back to school soon. I don’t think he should go back. I hate the thought of him being with other children.
RYU: I agree. Children are cruel.
CHIYOKO: And how can he defend himself if he can’t even speak? He needs protecting.
RYU: But he can’t stay away forever, can he?
CHIYOKO: I need to find a way to teach him how to protect himself. I don’t want him to go through what we went through. I couldn’t bear it.
RYU: I know.
CHIYOKO: Hey. He’s right here now, sitting with me, do you want to say hello?
RYU: Hello, Hiro!
CHIYOKO: Nice! He just bowed back at you. MC says she also wants to take him back to the hospital to get him checked out again. I keep fighting her on this. What is the point? There’s nothing physically wrong with him.
RYU: Maybe he just doesn’t have anything to say.
CHIYOKO: Yeah. Maybe that’s it.
RYU: You heard what the Americans are saying? About the fourth child? The one in Africa?
CHIYOKO: Of course. It’s stupid. MC says an American reporter called here yesterday. A foreigner who works for the Yomiuri Shimbun. They are as bad as Aikao Uri and her alien crap. How can a minister’s wife be so foolish? I take that back, I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m worried that she will ask to come and see Hiro.
RYU: Yeah. ‘Take me to your leader, Hiro.’
CHIYOKO: !!! Listen, Ryu. I just want to say, I appreciate you listening to me.
RYU: Where did that come from?
CHIYOKO: I’ve been meaning to say it for a while. I know it can’t be easy putting up with my ice princess ways. But it helps.
RYU: Um… Chiyoko, there’s something I need to tell you as well. It is difficult, but I need to get it out. I think you can guess what it is.
CHIYOKO: Hold that thought. The MC is screaming something at me.
Message logged @ 17.10, 05/03/2012
CHIYOKO: Android Uncle is here! He didn’t say he was coming
so MC is freaking out. More soon.
Message logged @ 02.30, 06/03/2012
CHIYOKO: Ryu. Ryu!
Message logged @ 02.40, 06/03/2012
RYU: I’m here! Sorry, sleeping. Your message beep woke me up.
CHIYOKO: Listen… got something freaky to tell you. But you have to promise to keep it to yourself.
RYU: You really have to ask?
CHIYOKO: Okay… Android Uncle brought Hiro something. A gift.
RYU: What? Don’t leave me in suspense!!!
CHIYOKO: An android.
RYU: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHIYOKO: It gets better. It’s an exact copy of Hiro. It looks just like him, although his hair is different. You should have heard MC scream when she saw it.
RYU: Are you serious? A robot version of Hiro?
CHIYOKO: Yes. Android Uncle says he was making it before Auntie Hiromi died. It is really really disturbing. Even freakier than his own surrabot. And that’s not all.