Chapter 31

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Chapter 31: Plane Crash!!!

“… When making this maneuver, you must pay attention to the throttle, or else you could stall and plummet down,” Instructor Wei Chi Song explained to Lin Mo and the others when suddenly he furrowed his brow and turned his head to look at the runway not far away.

A fighter jet, having completed its training flight, was flying in a curve around the base and was swooping down towards runway two. The base’s runway ran east to west, approximately two kilometers long, with two commonly used runways. Lin Mo and the other new pilots, along with those still in training, were using runway two.

Lin Mo squinted slightly, following Instructor Wei’s gaze as the L-15 Falcon advanced training aircraft prepared to land. However, its flying posture looked clearly wrong.

“Pull up, pull up! You’re going too slow! Quickly!” Instructor Wei’s face changed as he dashed toward the runway, shouting at the aircraft while waving his arms.

Almost at the same time, at the communications terminal closest to the runway, Major Shen also noticed something was off while instructing the observing students. He grabbed the radio and shouted out operational commands.

But for some unknown reason, the L-15 Falcon did not pull up or eject in time. Instead, it wobbled and swiftly lost speed, crashing violently to the ground. In front of everyone’s gaze, it smashed onto the runway with a loud crash, followed by a massive explosion. A huge fireball erupted, sending dark smoke rising into the air, while countless pieces of shattered metal and cement rained down like a storm.

“It crashed!” Lin Mo’s eyes widened. He had long been mentally prepared for air disasters. In his previous world, aerial knights sometimes experienced crashes during training due to various reasons, leading to the simultaneous deaths of both the flying beast and the knight. However, witnessing the horrific scene of aerial weaponry crashing in this world for the first time made his heart ache sharply. This was the price of yearning for the sky. Be it an aerial knight or a fighter pilot, a crash was their enduring pain—higher flight meant more tragic falls, and faster speeds brought about more bodies left behind.

He and the others raced toward the crash site as people from the control tower, hangars, and dormitories rushed to help.

Jet fuel spread across the area, igniting a sea of flames. The runway turned black from the burning. A massive pillar of black smoke rose to the sky, resembling a dark funeral shroud hanging overhead.

Lin Mo, the first to arrive, summoned the last remnants of his battle energy without hesitation, shielding his body and eyes as he charged into the fiery crash zone. Holding his breath and keeping his eyes wide open, he searched carefully for any signs of human shapes.

“Major Shen, Lin Mo has rushed in!” Instructor Wei called out to Major Shen, who had just arrived, as the oppressive heat at the scene curled his hair and made his skin feel as if it were burning. He could hardly imagine that just moments ago, the pilot named Lin Mo dared to charge straight through the smoke.

It was true what they say: new calves do not fear tigers. Major Shen and Instructor Wei felt their hearts race with anxiety.

In the distance, the urgent alarm of the base blared loudly, signaling an emergency. Fire trucks and ambulances sped onto the runway, racing toward the site as the emergency response protocols were activated. The entire base sprang into action.

While Instructor Wei and Major Shen were worried, the smoke suddenly parted, revealing Lin Mo, covered in soot and dirt, emerging with two charred humanoid figures. Major Shen’s heart sank; the aircraft’s pilot was Han Xingmin, a veteran pilot with over fifteen hundred flight hours, along with trainee Wang Jun. Though Lin Mo had rescued them, it was evident both were severely injured and the pressure suits were completely ruined, leaving them in a dreadful state. They could only hope Lin Mo acted quickly enough to save them from the impact and heat.

Yet, even if they survived, it seemed they would be forever denied the chance to fly again. Major Shen’s heart felt incredibly heavy. A crash was a grave incident, no matter where it occurred, and the other pilots and trainees who arrived shared the same sorrowful expressions, realizing that their friends’ fates were still uncertain just moments ago.

The cost of training pilots was massive, particularly for fighter pilots. The training cost for a formal fighter pilot equals or exceeds the value of the aircraft they fly. Manufacturing an aircraft takes far less time than training a pilot; while planes can roll off the assembly line, pilots cannot. In critical situations, pilots must eject to escape—better to save lives than planes.

“Lin Mo! Are you crazy? Are you throwing your life away?!” Instructor Wei exclaimed in shock at Lin Mo’s reckless act. Had Lin Mo not emerged unscathed from the smoke, he would have feared losing another pilot.

Gently laying down the lifeless pilots, Lin Mo didn’t look at Instructor Wei or Major Shen. He pressed his hands on both pilots’ necks for a moment, shook his head, and said, “One can’t be saved, but the other still has a heartbeat!”

Both Major Shen and Instructor Wei’s faces turned pale, their lips trembling, unable to speak. Even though the base suffered yearly casualties, particularly in high-risk military units with established casualty metrics, facing such tragedies was always unbearable.

The military-green ambulance sped forward, barely hitting the brakes, skidding nearly thirty meters before coming to a stop close to the crash site, almost barreling into the flames. The rear doors flew open, and four or five medics rushed out, hastily grabbing a stretcher and equipment, quickly loading the two men rescued by Lin Mo onto it. Without a second thought, they injected adrenaline into the survivors, and the on-site doctor checked their heartbeats, saying, “One has no heartbeat; the other still does. Get the defibrillator ready! Control the bleeding! Move out immediately!”

Due to the urgency, all rescue operations occurred directly on the stretcher, and the arriving pilots and trainees carefully placed it onto the military ambulance.

Emerging from the fire, Lin Mo’s sturdy military pilot pressure suit had provided more protection than his battle energy, though he still appeared blackened by smoke. He insisted that he was fine, but everyone surrounded him and ushered him onto the ambulance.

No sooner had the ambulance left than the fire trucks arrived, with tall grass surrounding the runway. A wildfire getting out of control would be disastrous, so they dropped several firebombs and surrounded the area with fire-retardant foam to control the remaining flames.

The base leadership would likely have a headache from this crash incident.

Entering the clean and pristine base infirmary, Lin Mo was forcibly brought in and pushed onto a bed. His comrades hurried to strip him down, making him panic and clutch the sheets, shouting, “What are you guys doing?! Lei Dong, your grip is too tight! And you, Chen Haiqing, stop hiding! I’ll know you’re burnt to ashes! You and Ye Xiaowei, Bai Fei, taking advantage of me while I’m in this state! You all better watch out, or I swear I’ll squeeze you!”

Everyone burst into laughter, enjoying Lin Mo’s embarrassment on the bed. This usually quiet and low-key guy rarely gave them a chance to see him like this.

“We’re doing this for your own good! If you rush into a fire like that, what if you get hurt? You’re a real fighter pilot now! What if you end up with a scar? How can you fly? Are you planning to switch to transport planes or helicopters instead?”

The infirmary doctor shook his head in amazement. Even with his soot-covered appearance, Lin Mo had no visible injuries, not even a burn blister. Instructor Wei and Major Shen both sighed in relief, grateful that there wasn’t a third casualty.

Bang! Bang! Bang…

The sound of gunfire echoed continually from the shooting range at the base, reminiscent of fireworks during a New Year celebration.

Of course, the air force base also had ground-based army firing ranges, not intended for bombing by aircraft since infantry also guarded the base. Routine training utilized this range, and the one-hundred-meter target distance was sufficient for both pistol and rifle shooting training.

As a fighter pilot, having a sidearm for self-defense was still necessary, particularly to handle emergencies in case of unexpected crashes in the field, so they needed to have some proficiency with firearms.

Since the crash incident involving the L-15 Falcon on landing, aside from essential air patrols, all other training and flight missions were suspended. The base leaders and safety supervisors were in a state of turmoil, and the mechanics had to undergo extensive training. The base immediately initiated a large-scale safety inspection, keeping the hangar lights on overnight. Every aircraft in the base was subjected to thorough checks, even engineers from the manufacturers were brought in to analyze the debris and black boxes to determine the cause of the accident.