Originally Posted by
Bergerie1
shimin,
I thank you for keeping us all so well informed. There is no need for you to apologise for your use of English, you are doing what few other people could do.
Like many others on this thread, I can only applaud and congratulate the crew on how well they reacted in such an astonishing event. To have an explosive decompression is bad enough, but for it to be a windscreen, to have the co-pilot sucked half out of the aircraft, to have the mode select panel and automatics so badly damaged AND to be over such high mountains makes this a truly unique event. That was real flying!
I once had a windcreen crack. It was the main load-bearing layer but, with five layers, the other four held. We were halfway between Nairobi and Entebbe in the middle of the night. When the glass broke it sounded like a twelve-bore shot gun going off in the cockpit. It was dark and it took us some time to find out what had happened - but the 'startle effect' was profound. Fortunately in our case nothing untoward happened and we descended and returned to Nairobi.
The shock for the Chinese crew must have been dreadful - but they coped magnificently. I salute Captain Liu and his crew.
Thank you for your understanding. I think my poor English failed to translate the terms accurately. For example, I read your word 'startle effect' but I fogot to use it when translation. The worse is I can not accurately express the deeper meaning behind their words. That must be the joint efforts of language and aviation experts. But I think you professionals can understand mine roughly and, in turn, help the industry and benefit from the safety of air travel as a whole, which is my reason.