Can a 747 fly with a 30-foot long, ceiling-high hole in the forward fuselage, and if so, is this a plausible reaction (and terminology) in the cockpit to the explosive decompression:
The door clicked shut and the four remaining men turned forward. A heartbeat later the first thud came, very loud, shaking the plane. A second thud followed almost immediately, this one muffled, then a staccato banging, like a wooden spoon being slapped hard against a pan bottom.
“What the hell was that?” Captain Agom barked. The nose pitched downward, slamming him to his knees and into the back of the seat.
Zach was pressed hard against his harness. He stared at the glowing panel in front of him. In the vertigo of the moonless night he knew only what the instruments told him: they were pointed at the ocean and going way too fast. He fixed his mask in place and checked the flow of oxygen. Cabin pressure was gone and the aircraft was shaking badly. Something was very wrong. He looked to his left: “Sir?”
Captain Agom was still on his knees. He gripped the armrest and stared blankly out the windscreen.
“Sir! Please,” Zach said.
“Get it back.”
“Yes, sir.” Zach braced his feet and tugged hard on the stick.
“You are taking us down, asshole. Pull up!”
“Sir, I try–”
“What shit are you doing? Go up!”
“It is very heavy, sir.”
“Can you both try?” blurted Zach’s 19-year old nephew, fresh from flight school in America and a guest in the jumpseat, too green to know the protocol.
An alarm blared. “Why is that sound?” the Captain snapped, struggling into his seat.
“It’s the overspeed warning, sir,” said Zach.
“I know what it is, jackass. Why is it sounding?”
“We are going too fast,” the nephew said.
“And the hydraulics are gone, sir,” Zach said quickly, battling the yoke and hoping to deflect attention from the boy. “We have almost no pressure.”
“The hydraulics are fuck off?”
“Yes sir. We are dropping rapidly. Have you got the stick?” The man was just sitting there doing nothing!
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