撞機是人生轉機的開始

A Mid-Air Collision—-The Twist of My Fate

(The Chinese version was originally printed in the sundry column, United Daily News, April 25, 2002)

民國七十四年十二月十七日，飛行序列排著「始曉」訓練任務，我不得不在大寒流天起個大早，用F-5E戰機追著黎明晨曦，飛上天去執行「攔截兼纏鬥」的戰技操演。

That was early in the morning, the 17th day of December, 1985, when I had to wake up amid cold current to carry out the scheduled training mission: “Daybreak”, flying my F-5E in pursuit of the gleams of dawn and performing the drill of “interception and dogfight”.

落地之後，身著單層飛行衣的我，卻因戰鬥動作的激烈而全身汗水溼透，看著同僚身上也冒起那汗氣蒸發出的白煙，趕緊要大家先擦完汗、穿上夾克，才開始任務歸詢。

The fight drill was so drastic that my single-layered flying suit had been socking wet when I landed. I noticed that steams out of perspiration from the bodies of my colleagues wafted in the air, and told them to wipe the sweat away without delay, put on jackets before making conclusive reviewing.

起飛卻沒有落地

A take-off without landing

當時我是四機領隊的分隊長，飛行時間有一千二百多小時，做完第一批訓練的歸詢，緊接著又是第二批同課目的飛行。誰也沒想到，第二批的飛行前任務提示，已然劃上了我戰鬥飛行生涯的句點。

I was the lieutenant of a squad of four fighters then, having amassed a flying time of over one thousand and two hundred hours. Right after the reviewing of the first round, we started to perform the same course, second round. By no stretch of the imagination, the pre-briefing of the second round flight has already marked the end of the line for my flying career.

四架戰機在天上的攻防操練既緊張又剌激，雖然意猶未盡，但因安全油量的限制，只好停止課目由戰管引導返航，兩機一組先後加入嘉義機場的航線管制區。

The drill of offense and defense made of four fighters was so intense and exciting that made us feel reluctant to call it a day. But due to the limitation of safety fuel, we had to discontinue the course and return to the base through the instruction from control center. Four planes then flew in pairs, entering the air route of Chia-yi airport in sequence.

飛到機場航線強制報告點，我呼叫：「通過航線加入點」

As I reached the mandatory reporting point, I called, “permission for entrance”.

「許可繼續進場，五邊5浬再呼叫」塔台回答。

“Permission granted. Call again when reaching five-miles point”. Answered the control tower.

我剛說「照辦」就與中興號教練機對頭相撞。

No sooner had I responded “Roger” than I encountered a head-in collision with a Chung –hsing trainer.

相撞前，我因為飛機轉彎的視野死角，並沒有看見對方；撞上後，撞擊力量立刻使我陷入昏迷，對發生的一切情境全然不知。唯一可以確定的是，這是一次有起飛，卻沒有落地的空難！

Before the collision took place, I did not see the plane opposite because there was a blind spot in the curve; after the hit, the heavy impulse immediately made me unconscious and totally oblivious of what had happened. The only thing I was sure of is an air disaster of take-off only, no landing.

我的左腳呢？

Where has my right leg gone?

飛機相撞是我人生噩運的結束，因為我雖未能即時閃避或彈射跳傘逃生，但隨後的遭遇，要不是有幸運之神伴著我，怎麼能總是化險為夷，順利得到死裡逃生的救護呢？

The collision actually put an end to my doom-laden life, for, despite being unable to neither dodge nor did parachute in time, many serendipitous events of assistance smiled on me, heading off the disasters later on, luckily save my life from the hand of grin reaper.

先是對方的飛機撞擊到我壓坡度轉彎的機腹，因而引爆座椅的彈射火箭，意外的將人椅穿破座艙罩彈出機外；昏迷的我，才能隨著緊急逃生的彈射座椅，逃離撞裂燃燒的飛機。接著是降落傘自動展開，飄降到新營市新東國中的操場，獲得正在上體育課湯立新老師的協助落地，以及校護蘇瑞菊小姐的止血急救，倖免了墜地的二度傷害與失血過多的險境。

At first the plane opposite hit me on the sloping aircraft belly, so as to induce explosion of the rocket under my seat, accidentally bounced the unconscious me and the seat off the cockpit of that burning, crashed plane. Then the parachute automatically unbuttoned, flew and landed me at the playground of Hing-tong junior high school located in Hsing-yin town. With assistance from Mr. Li-hsin Tang, a PE teacher who was then teaching helped me land smoothly. Ms. Re-ju Su, the school nurse, gave me the first aid by stopping my bleeding, helped me out of the peril of repeated injury during landing, and the danger of bleeding to death.

最幸運的是，看到空中相撞追蹤而至操場的警車，馬上送我到新營張外科，緊急輸血後用救護車轉送台南空軍醫院。經Ｘ光檢查，發現受創嚴重的部位是：腦震盪、血氣胸、脊椎裂損、左手肘開放性骨折、右膝蓋骨碎裂、左大腿內骨折、左小腿粉碎性骨折等，台南空軍醫院無法醫治如此重創，立刻申請救護專機急送台北三軍總醫院。

The luckiest thing was: the police patrol car that beheld the accident followed me to the playground, and in no time escorted me to the Chang’s Surgeon in town where I received an emergent blood transfusion, and subsequently transferred me to Tainan Air Force Infirmary by an ambulance. The X-rayed examination indicated that several parts of my body were severely injured, namely concussion, hemothorax, spine bones out of alignment, compound fracture on my right elbow, right kneecap shattered to pieces, fracture on my left thing, left leg broken into fragments, etc. The Infirmary was not capable of curing such a badly injured patient like me, so they immediately applied a dedicated airplane, carrying to the General Hospital of Tri-forces in Taipei.

一個多月後，我從腦震盪的昏迷中甦醒，還不知道發生什麼事，掙扎地問周遭的人：「我怎麼會躺在這裡？」

After a month or so, I awaked from coma of the concussion, being unaware of what had happened to me, struggling to ask the people around me, “How come I am lying here?’

沒有人回答我。突然間，一股劇痛自腳底生起，我禁不住的睜開眼往下一看，驚恐立刻取代了劇痛，張口嘶聲大叫：「我的左腳呢？」

No one answered. All of a sudden, an attach of throes hit at the bottom of me leg; I could not help myself but look downwards, spontaneously a attack of panic replaced the pain, and I screamed and shouted, “Where has my left leg gone?’

單腳游泳復健

Convalescing by singled-legged swimming

身心慘遭嚴重創傷的我，開了14次刀，輸了7,000西西的鮮血(血債血償，截至2012.01.21我已還了65,000西西)，住了20個月的醫院，終於能左腳穿著義肢、雙手撐著枴杖出院了。

Trauma inflicted, I received major surgery fourteen times and was totally transfused seven thousands c.c. (Up to January 21, 2012, I have reciprocated people’s kindness with donating 65,000 c.c. in return). After twenty months’ hospitalization, finally I walked out of the hospital on crutches, with a prosthetic limb as the substitute for my amputated left leg

在身體復健方面，游泳是我的大功臣。回想當年首次下水，在池中用一隻腳踢水，會造成不平衡而歪著游。不得要領的游了一會兒，突然想到我飛的機種是F-5E，它裝有兩具發動機，平時就練有一具發動機故障，造成單邊推力不平衡的操作經驗。水裡與天空一樣是三度空間，用划水的角度來調整方向，即刻彌補了單腳踢水的不平衡。

Swimming had been playing the most significant role during my journey to physical recovery. I can still remember the very first time how the single-legged swimming unbalanced my body, skewed off when I was moving forward in the pool. After a while groping for right ways to solve the puzzles, the light dawned on me as I thought of the similar situation that I had to fly my F-5E when either one of the two engines was in failure. And I had the experience in dealing with the lopsided thrust like that. Granted that the same three-dimensional theory was applicable to both in air and under water, I hereby rectified the unbalance of single-legged swimming by adjusting the angle of stroke to direct the orientation I was moving on.

特別是用眼睛看著池底的黑線配合，更能體會目視飛行時用「天地線」作參考基準，再用手當調整片的訣竅，沒多久就克服障礙游成直線了。十七年後的今天，我仍持續不斷地以游泳復健，千禧年還參加日月潭橫渡呢！

Besides the technique of adjusting swimming routes by hand stroke, I especially tapped into the concept of horizontal line, guidance that I performed visual flight, to further adjust my route in accord with the black line at the bottom of pool. With the knacks, not before long was I able to overcome the obstacles and swim in a straight line. Seventeen years elapsed; the sustained practices of swimming had been the mainstay to my recovery. In millennium of year 2000, I even took part in a contest of traversing the Sun-Moon Lake.

在心理復健方面，雖有精神科醫生的治療，長官、同袍、親友的協助，以及妻子的容忍與激勵，仍然無法接受「為什麼是我？」的慘痛事實，重大創傷「壓力症候群」的陰影，一直揮之不去。

In the aspect of psychological recovery, I still could not accept the tragic fact of “Why it was me?” in spite of the treatment from my psychiatrist, the assistance form my superiors, colleagues, relatives and friends; and the tolerance and the encouragement form my wife. The shadow of traumatic stress syndrome still haunted me, and could not get rid of it.

儘管失事調查列出相關肇因，空軍也規畫出航線的「防撞計畫」，卻凸顯出一個事實，就是那次相撞「假如不是我」，也可能會發生在別人身上，因為當時的飛航管理體系存有瑕疵。

Notwithstanding some investigations reports revealing relative reasons that caused the accident, and an anti-collision plan in courses designed by the Air Force, the accident itself had made one fact highly noticeable. That is, “if it wasn’t me” to have got involved in that collision, it would have most likely happened to some else, for some flaws did exist in the flight management system then.

換個跑道再起飛

Change a runway and take off again

心理調適是一段內心煎熬的過程，除了以「筆桿」取代「駕駛桿」，摸索心靈表白的出路之外，也想面對個人的慘痛經歷，找出「為什麼是我」與「假如不是我」的答案。

The journey of psychological adjustment was a long stint of mental travail I had been through. Save that my shaft of pen replaced shaft of drive, in search for the catharsis, I would also want to find out the answers to “why it was me” and “if it wasn’t me” through my personal ordeal of this miserable experience.

這種「人溺己溺，感同身受」的心境，促使我蒐集相關資料，從自己的案例開始探討，並積極參加國內、外飛安課程的學習，全力投入飛安管理的研究。「從天上摔下再爬起」的信念，使我經常發表確保軍、民航飛安的建言，希望空難的悲劇，永遠不要發生在可以預防，卻又疏於防範的狀況下！

This kind of mindset of the sense of compassion urged me on to glean from everywhere the related information, commencing with my own case, and then actively enrolling the air safety coursed both domestic and abroad, delving myself into the research of safety management. The notion of “tumbling down from the sky and standing up from the ground” made me constantly contribute my suggestions toward how to ensure both military and civic air safeties, hoping that the air disasters would never happen in a neglectful situation that would have actually been avoidable!

回顧成殘廿三年的歲月，撞機是我人生轉機的開始。當我坦然面對撞機的事實，反而使我走出重大創傷症候群的陰影，不但安然渡過身、心理的復健期，更能獲得「空難倖存者，飛安代言人」的研究肯定(註)，人生轉機成「換個跑道再起飛！」

Twenty-three years of disability in retrospect, the collision had been the turning point of my life. When I confronted the reality of collision cool and composed, I could get myself over the shadow of the trauma syndrome instead. Consequently, it had not only helped me weather the odyssey of recovery, mentally and physically, but also earned me the stature of “the survivor of air disaster, and the pitchman of air safety”(*) “Change a runway and take off again” became the twist of my fate!

註：民國84年榮獲空軍學術論文「軍種獎狀」。民國90年榮獲民航局「飛航安全高階主管訓練班」講演評鑑優等，以及民航局出版「航空安全人為因素探討及案例分析」專書撰述者之一。

*: The writer was awarded the prize of Air Force thesis in 1995, and was awarded cum laude among lectures presented in the “air safety training for high-leveled management” sponsored by CAB in 2001. He is also the co-author of the CAB’s industry book “Air safety: researches on human factors and case study”

Translated on November, 2008