Memories of survivors of the May 8 China Southern Airlines crash in 1997

On the evening of May 8, 1997, Chongqing Airport. Jiang Wanyu, a 49-year-old businessman at the time, kept the driver who took him into Hong Kong. "What's the rush? Let's go have a meal first. Even if the plane crashes, I will still be a hungry man after all," he said. It was a prophecy - at 21:20, when flight CZ3456 carrying 74 people including Jiang Wanyu landed at Shenzhen Huangtian Airport (now renamed Baoan Airport), the violent vibration caught people off guard. Jiang Wanyu, who was sitting by the window in row 16, was even ejected and his head hit the luggage compartment above the seat.

“Amidst the ear-piercing roar, the plane bounced hard three times on the runway.” Jiang Wanyu recalled, “The ceiling in the aisle was cracked and hung in the air, and the floor of row 15 was convex. The "black box" that was circulated on the Internet later recorded the details of the plane's crash, including the first touchdown. At this time, the cabin began to Call the police. There was panic in the cockpit. The mood of the passengers was even more panic-Jiang Wanyu looked out the window. The two windows inside and outside the plane had been staggered, and the inner window had slipped down. The seats in rows 10 to 16 began to shake like cradle, and the strong wind brought raindrops the size of soybean grains, pouring directly into the cabin from the cracks.

"The plane has deformed, I can only live for a few minutes!" Jiang Wanyu had this thought. This information should also be recorded by the black box: Due to the deformation of the aircraft body, CZ3456 cannot fly normally. Jiang Wanyu unbuckled his seat belt, held on to the back of his seat and fled to the rear of the cabin, sitting in the last row on the left side of the aisle. Immediately afterwards, five more people stumbled to the tail of the plane. The plane's black box was placed here, and they got close to it while staying away from death.

Since this plane is not full, all passengers are arranged behind row 6. The person in the front seat tried to follow behind to escape, but was stopped by the flight attendant. The plane tilted forward and began to land, and the cabin was quiet. About five minutes later, a woman suddenly screamed: "I don't want to die!"

The 12-minute black box recording ended, ending with desperate shouts in the cockpit.

The plane that fell in the heavy rain broke apart. Jiang Wanyu and others escaped from the cabin. Behind them, the wreckage of the tail of the Boeing 737 lay on the ground like a huge chimney, and the middle part and the head were broken apart, nearly a hundred meters apart; especially the middle part, billowing smoke came out, and above the thick smoke A red flame more than ten meters high ignited, illuminating the three pieces of aircraft wreckage scattered on the grass. No one knows where the black box rolled to - it may still be in the cabin, but it is definitely intact - the relevant agencies have stipulated that it The production standards must be fireproof, pressure resistant, impact vibration resistant, seawater immersion resistant, etc.

Five men and four women, including Jiang Wanyu, became the luckiest people because they ran to the rear of the plane beforehand.

"We are alive!" Jiang Wanyu shouted to everyone. He looked at his watch: 21:40.

"There is no point in pursuing the cause"

Two vehicles picked up the nine survivors - the front one took away two flight attendants, and the other seven passengers were Group. After medical treatment, it is a closed investigation.

“Outside the hospital where we stayed, several policemen were walking around to prevent anyone from entering.” Jiang Wanyu said, “But three reporters who came from Chongqing somehow got in, and some of them survived. The reporter quickly told the reporter to hide the interview materials, otherwise he would be kicked out by the police. ”

In the early morning of May 9, five men knocked on Jiang Wanyu’s door. The leader claimed to be Zhao Guangmao, director of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau, and came to learn about the circumstances of the plane crash. "They took notes all night before leaving," Jiang Wanyu recalled. "After that, no one investigated the specific details of the plane crash with us." A man named Zhang Ying from the finance department of China Southern Airlines came to see him every day. , but did not ask about the scene at the time of the crash.

At the scene, the search for the black box also began. There are two types of black boxes: one is the flight data recorder, which records all flight data, including speed, direction, altitude, cabin pressure, etc.; the other is the cabin voice recorder, which records the voice of the maintenance personnel.

When a plane crashes and no one survives, they can help solve the mystery of what caused it.

The "black box" circulating on the Internet is the latter. After seven days in the hospital, Jiang Wanyu proposed to return to Chongqing. He received compensation from China Southern Airlines, which was about 20,000 yuan per year. Since then, Jiang Wanyu has never seen the other six people who escaped from death together. Jiang Wanyu, who had experienced life and death, did not ask further about the cause of the plane crash. "The airline is still responsible for us. If the pilots made a mistake, they have already paid for the mistake with their lives. I forgive them." He said.

At the beginning of 2008, Jiang Wanyu got the news that the "black box recording" of the "May 8" air crash appeared on the Internet. After reading this most important information, many people were scolding the pilots: "It was their wrong judgment that caused the plane crash." But Jiang Wanyu did not listen to the "black box recording" and just read the transcript of the recording in front of the computer. "It's meaningless, 10 years have passed, and everyone has died." He was even looking for reasons for the pilot, "It was the captain who saved our lives. If he hadn't parked the plane on the lawn, we might all have died. ”

Ten years of “confusion”

Jiang Wanyu never visited the scene of his escape again. But for some relatives of the victims, they hope to capture the last shadow of their loved ones from any clues. The day after the injured was admitted to the hospital, two minibuses drove into the accident scene at the airport. Shocking cries came, and in the car were the relatives of the victims. But they were not allowed to get out of the car and could only open the windows to watch. The wreckage of the plane has been towed away. Every five minutes, a plane takes off and lands overhead, the sound of air waves and motors deafening.

On May 9, 1997, Zhang Yang and his mother Zhang Ying saw the news of the plane crash on the news. When he was only 10 years old, he burst into tears - his father Zhang Yongsheng was on this flight.

On May 10, 1997, the misfortune was confirmed. The mother and son were surrounded and taken to the Xili Lake Resort in Shenzhen. Here, Zhang Ying officially received the "Passenger Disaster Notice" from China Southern Airlines. In the next 10 days, Zhang Yang and his mother began to face the disaster: after seeing the accident scene, they had to identify the body, collect the relics, sign the agreement, and collect the compensation...

Every day, there would be airline personnel Come and comfort Zhang Ying. But she wanted to find out more about the cause of the accident, meet the survivors, and talk about what happened that day. These requests went unanswered, and she couldn't even find a chance to talk to other family members of the victims. Each family member of the victims had a dedicated person to take care of them. They also talked with the airline about aftermath compensation, and everyone separated. Ten days later, she signed an agreement with the airline. This is a one-time agreement to resolve disputes between family members and the airline. She returned to Chongqing with her son and her husband's ashes and 140,000 yuan in compensation from the airline.

"The agreement hopes that we will not ask further questions, which seems to erase the husband from the plane crash." Zhang Ying said.

Ten years later, the airline finally did not tell her the cause of the accident, nor did it allow her to meet the survivors of the accident. Although she was reluctant to call China Southern Airlines several times to inquire.

Son Zhang Yang began to pay attention to civil aviation. He goes to the runway of the airport every month and watches the planes taking off and landing.

On May 8, 2007 - the tenth anniversary of his father's death, he posted a post titled "The 10th Anniversary of the May 8th Air Crash" in a forum for civil aviation enthusiasts to commemorate that event. The father who died in the accident. Soon, someone sent the "black box recording of the plane crash" to his mailbox. Zhang Yang and his mother finally learned the "truth" about the accident from an email sent by a stranger. But so far, China Southern Airlines and other relevant departments have not made it clear whether this circulating version is true or false.

When he obtained the "black box recording", Zhang Yang was already a sophomore at a university in Chengdu. He had been fascinated by civil aviation aircraft for nearly ten years. "This was entirely due to the pilot's misjudgment, not aiming at the runway, and then going around after the impact." He thought. On the night when the secret was about to be revealed, he couldn't suppress his excitement. He turned off the lights in the room, turned off the computer screen, put on headphones, closed his eyes in the dark, and listened quietly to the 12 minutes and 44 seconds. "recording".

While listening, he simulated the flight situation in his mind.

For a long time after that, he kept trying the situation over and over again in front of the computer using a flight simulator. At the same speed and angle, the plane rushes to the ground: it lands, hits, and is damaged; then it refuels and lifts off. Rush, land again, disintegrate... Unfortunately, China Southern Airlines still hasn't told him whether the recording is true or false. (Zhang Ying is a pseudonym in this article)

On April 1, 2008, the Civil Aviation Administration of China gave a written reply to China News Weekly regarding issues related to the black box of the "5.8" air crash. The following is the original reply.

The aircraft cockpit sound (referring to the black box recording) is a true record of the cockpit sound. It can only be used for accident investigation and must not be released to the public. The International Civil Aviation Convention and relevant regulations have clear provisions on this. .

The Civil Aviation Administration of China believes that the unauthorized release of the cockpit sound of the accident aircraft seriously violates the provisions of the International Civil Aviation Convention and relevant regulations, and is an irresponsible act towards the accident victims and their families. No organization or individual may release accident investigation materials without permission from the accident investigation department. Any organization or person who releases accident investigation information without authorization will be held accountable.

10-Year Commemoration

On the night of May 8, 1997, Shenzhen was shrouded in a storm. Just after 9 o'clock, flight CZ3456 from Chongqing started in the heavy rain. The final approach...

After three consecutive approaches, the result was that the fuselage disintegrated, flames shot into the sky, and 33 passengers died. In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed, and the lawn that was once burned by burning aviation fuel still shows yellow spots - this land that was once covered with green grass has never been able to grow again after experiencing this tragedy. Green grass grows...

I was only 10 years old that year. When I learned about the plane crash on TV at noon on the 9th, tears burst out because my father was in this class. On the plane, although we learned from the news that only 33 of the 73 people on the plane were killed, the silence on the phone last night gave us an ominous premonition.

Despite this, I was still in the fourth grade of elementary school and still went to school on time in the afternoon. But when I got home from school, I found that I was even more depressed and angry than at noon. The narrow living room was crowded with relatives, my mother Her eyes were already red and swollen. When she saw me coming back, she calmly told me - pack your things and go to Shenzhen immediately!

Everyone knows what this sentence represents. They only remember that it was a headache at the time. When I remembered it again, I was already on the way to Chongqing Airport. Several uncles and uncles accompanied us. We spent the night at Jiangbei Airport and took the first flight to Shenzhen early the next morning to head to the southern country we once dreamed of.

When the plane landed at the sunny seaside airport, my heart suddenly tightened, because the broken nose and charred fuselage on the lawn outside the window suddenly came into view, and the green The lawns and charred open spaces are littered with fragments and wreckage of the aircraft. The bright red kapok on the broken vertical tail of the aircraft seems to tell the story of the disaster that happened here one day ago - it is on this piece of land that the torn apart The metal and raging fire swallowed up 33 living lives.

In my hazy memory, we were taken to a special conference room in the terminal building as soon as we got off the plane. Here, the leaders of China Southern Shenzhen Company expressed condolences to us and the families of several other groups of passengers who arrived on the same plane. . At that time, there was a person with a work badge who was responsible for taking care of our family. I remember he said to my mother, "I am also very sad. I am very sorry for you. Please hit me or scold me..." My mother was oblique at the time. He replied with a sob on his face, "It's not your fault, thank you."

Our food and accommodation were arranged at Shenzhen Xili Lake Resort, and it seemed that the body recognition started 2 days later. I started by looking at photos. I looked at a few pictures with my mother and then I didn’t dare to look at them anymore, because among all the corpses with intact faces, there was no photo of my father at all. What I saw was that the one that might be my father was burnt. Photos of corpses. Although I didn't take a closer look, I was still shocked by the horror of the photo - the black body was huddled up and turned into charcoal. There were a few protruding parts that seemed to be bones, but the muscles were long gone.

This is simply unbearable for me - how could my father, who was so kind and amiable just a few days ago, become like this!

In the end, it seemed that the body was identified through tooth mark identification, because the relics around him were just a pile of scattered banknotes, and it was impossible to identify the body at all. The shape of my father’s lower teeth was a fan shape, which was very special, but this The corpse was one of the three that had been burned the most. The whole body was charred, with not an inch of intact skin, and some parts were burned until only bones remained. Poor dad! It’s hard to imagine how painful he was in the hellish fire at the last moment of his life...

The next step was to directly identify the remains. At this time, I was left with a lifelong regret - being photographed I was so frightened that I didn’t dare to see the body in person. Instead, I sat in the car parked in front of the funeral home for more than an hour. I remember that my mother went in twice. The first time she fainted as soon as she went in and was carried out. But after she woke up with a sedative, she insisted on going in again... It was because of this momentary fear that I missed and The last masking of my biological father has become a lifelong regret for me!

A few days later, I went to identify the relics again. A large warehouse near the airport was filled with passengers’ relics from the accident scene. I still remember the scene when I walked into the warehouse: as soon as I entered the door, there was a strong smell of burning. The whole warehouse was filled with various things soaked in water and stained with soil. From time to time, someone suddenly picked up a bunch of things. We began to cry bitterly over each item. Here, we found the travel bag that my father used when he went out. Because it was checked, the bag was not burned by the fire and was still intact. It just had a strange smell after being wet by the rain and dried in the sun... ···

We also went to the scene of the accident. Before setting off, we were told not to get out of the car for safety reasons, but when the car stopped by the burnt-black "lawn", the car There were loud cries again, but this time, I didn't cry, but looked at the land quietly - at this time, it had been cleaned up, and I could no longer see the land that had just arrived on the 10th. At that time, the wreckage was scattered on the ground;

At this time, the runway next to it became busy again, and the planes taking off and landing seemed to have forgotten the 737 that was smashed into pieces here! At this time, except for the few black spots on the green grass and the crying in the car next to it, everything was back to normal...

It has been more than 20 days since we left Shenzhen. My father, who arrived two days earlier, lay peacefully in the box in my arms and returned with us to the land where he was born...

Today, ten years later, I am sitting at the computer Now, every detail of that time is still vivid in my mind, and my father’s voice and smile still appear in my dreams from time to time. After that, I started paying attention to civil aviation, and gradually became obsessed with passenger planes. I would go to the runway every month, and looking at the rising and falling planes, I seemed to see the smiles of my relatives again...