澳洲海滩飞机残骸是马航失联客机重大线索

Malaysian officials expressed confidence that a piece of aircraft debris washed up on a beach on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion is from a Boeing 777 jet, increasing the likelihood it comes from flight MH370, the Malaysia Airlines aircraft that disappeared 17 months ago without a trace.

马来西亚官员表示相信，被冲上印度洋法属留尼汪岛(La Réunion)的一块飞机碎片来自一架波音777(Boeing 777)飞机，这意味着这块碎片很有可能来自17个月以前消失得无影无踪的马来西亚航空公司(Malaysia Airlines) MH370航班。

Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, confirmed earlier comments by one of his ministers that the piece of wreckage was almost certainly from a Boeing 777 aircraft. “Reports suggest that the debris is very likely to be from a Boeing 777, but we need to verify whether it is from flight MH370. At this stage it is too early to speculate,” Mr Najib wrote on his official blog.

马来西亚总理纳吉布拉扎克(Najib Razak)证实了他手下一名部长稍早前的言论，即这块残骸几乎肯定来自一架波音777飞机。“相关报道似乎表明，这块碎片很可能来自一架波音777，但我们需要验证它是否来自MH370航班。目前阶段要作出推测还为时过早，”纳吉布在自己的官方博客上写道。

If the part is from a 777 twin-engined jet, it is highly likely to be from MH370, since other known losses of the aircraft type — including last year’s shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine — occurred over land.

如果飞机碎片来自一架777双发喷气客机，那么它极有可能来自MH370，因为这种机型的其它已知坠毁事件——包括去年马航MH17航班在乌克兰上空被击落——都发生在陆地上空。

Mr Najib said the piece of debris would be sent to a laboratory in Toulouse, France, for inspection by investigators from the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses. La Réunion is a French territory east of Madagascar, which under international law makes the BEA the lead investigative body.

纳吉布表示，这块碎片将被送到法国图卢兹的一个实验室，由法国航空事故调查处(Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses, BEA)的专家进行检验。位于马达加斯加以东的留尼汪岛是法国领土，按照国际法，这使法国航空事故调查处成为牵头调查机构。

The Malaysians, Australians and Chinese have been conducting an extensive search for the aircraft off the west coast of Australia since it disappeared on March 8 2014. The jet was carrying 239 people on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

自这架飞机在2014年3月8日失联以来，马来西亚、澳大利亚和中国一直在澳大利亚西海岸外的大片海域进行搜寻。该机载有239人，当时在执行从吉隆坡飞往北京的航班。

Warren Truss, Australia’s deputy prime minister, described the discovery of the debris as a significant development. “It’s the first real evidence that there’s a possibility that part of the aircraft may have been found,” he said. But he cautioned: “It’s too early to make that judgment, but clearly we’re treating this as a major lead.”

澳大利亚副总理沃伦礠拉斯(Warren Truss)将发现这块碎片形容为一个重大发展。“这是第一个实实在在的证据，证明这架飞机的一部分有可能已被找到，”他说。但他告诫称：“现在要作出那样的判断还为时过早，但显然我们把它当作一个重大线索。”

There were also unconfirmed reports that a badly damaged piece of luggage has been found close to where the debris washed up on La Réunion. Journalist Julien Delarue, who works for a local newspaper, posted a photograph of the suitcase on Twitter. It is not known whether the luggage came from MH370.

此外，还有未经证实的报道称，一件严重受损的行李也被冲上留尼汪岛，其发现地点靠近飞机碎片。为当地一家报社工作的记者朱利安德拉罗(Julien Delarue)在Twitter上贴出了这个行李箱的一张照片。尚不清楚这件行李是否来自MH370航班。

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said yesterday that the discovery of the wreckage on the island was “not inconsistent with the current search location” which is 4,200km east of La Réunion. The search teams are working on the theory that MH370 crashed within a 120,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean, 1,800km south-west of Australia.

澳大利亚交通安全局(Australian Transport Safety Bureau)昨日表示，在留尼汪岛发现飞机残骸“与当前的搜索位置并不矛盾”；当前搜索位置在留尼汪岛以东4200公里。搜索团队依据的理论是，MH370航班在南印度洋一个12万平方公里的区域内坠毁，大致位于澳大利亚西南方向1800公里。

If the part is from the missing flight, it could provide critical clues to the fate of MH370: radar tracking showed the aircraft changed course to the west after heading north-east from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing without any further communication from the pilots. Later analysis of satellite signals suggested the aircraft had then turned south and headed out over the Indian Ocean.

如果发现的残骸被确认来自失联航班，它有望提供关于MH370失事真相的关键线索：雷达跟踪数据显示，该机从吉隆坡起飞后，最初朝东北方向、即目的地北京飞行，后来改变航向向西飞行，而且没有再接到机长或副驾驶的进一步呼叫。事发后对卫星信号的分析似乎表明，该机后来又朝着浩瀚的印度洋向南飞行。

Assumptions were made about the aircraft speed and height and it was decided it was likely to have ditched in the sea somewhere off Australia’s west coast when it ran out of fuel.

专家们对飞机速度和高度作出了一些假设，最后得出结论认为，它很可能在耗尽燃油后，在澳大利亚西海岸外的海上某处坠落。

A multinational force of ships and aircraft have spent months searching a large area of the Indian Ocean without success. Experts said the discovery of the wreckage so far from the theoretical crash zone was consistent with the direction of the ocean currents.

多国派遣船舶和飞机，花了好几个月在印度洋的一大片海域进行搜寻，但一直查无下落。专家们表示，在距离理论推定的坠机海域那么远的地方发现飞机碎片，与洋流方向是吻合的。

The undersea search for Flight MH370 is one of the most complex and expensive in aviation history, costing about $150m to date.

海底搜索MH370航班是航空史上最复杂和最昂贵的搜寻行动之一，迄今已耗资约1.5亿美元。