飞行员操作失误成旧金山空难调查重点

The Asiana Airlines jet that crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing two Chinese teenagers and injuring 182 others, was descending at a dangerously slow speed and pilots apparently ran out of time to correct their approach, investigators said Sunday.

韩亚航空(Asiana Airlines)客机在美国旧金山国际机场(San Francisco International Airport)降落过程中失事，造成两名中国青少年死亡，182人受伤。调查人员周日说，该飞机以非常危险的低速降落，而且表面看来飞行员已没有时间进行纠正。

While stopping short of pinpointing pilot error as the likely cause of the fiery crash Saturday, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman's comments indicated investigators were focused primarily on why the cockpit crew allowed speed to decay to such an extent─and failed to take decisive action until the Boeing 777 was less than two seconds from impact.

美国全国运输安全委员会(National Transportation Safety Board)主席赫斯曼(Deborah Hersman)的评论表明，虽然还没有确定飞行员操作失误是造成周六严重坠机事故的可能原因，但调查人员基本上把重点放在了两方面，一是驾驶舱机组人员为何会允许这架波音777飞机的速度慢到这样一个程度，二是他们直到该飞机还有不到两秒钟着陆之前一直未采取果断措施。

The overnight flight from Seoul, with 307 people on board, including 16 crew members, hit a rocky sea wall, which sheared off its tail and landing gear, then slammed onto the runway, skidded, spun off the tarmac and erupted into flames.

这架载有307人（包括16名机组成员）的航班从首尔起飞，经过一整夜的航程后，撞到了岩石筑成的防波堤上，机尾和起落架折断，然后撞上跑道，后又冲出跑道起火。

Some passengers and witnesses said it looked as if the aircraft was too close to San Francisco Bay as it approached the runway.

一些乘客和目击者说，好像是该飞机在着陆时离旧金山湾太近。

'There was no feeling of anything wrong. No announcement. Then suddenly the plane went bam, bam, bam, bam,' said Fawen Yan, a 48-year-old resident of the San Francisco Bay area who was sitting in economy class.

坐在失事飞机经济舱里的48岁旧金山湾地区居民Fawen Yan说，没有感觉到任何异常，也没有听到任何通知，飞机突然就发出“砰、砰、砰”的声音。

Remarkably, 123 passengers walked away without major injuries after exiting from emergency slides or leaping from gaping holes in the burned body of the plane.

值得一提的是，有123名乘客没有严重受伤，他们有的通过应急滑梯逃生，有的从飞机机体烧焦开裂的洞口跳出来。

China's Ministry of Education said 70 of those aboard were Chinese students or their teachers bound for U.S. precollege exchange programs. Among them, according to Asiana and Chinese officials, were Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, who were killed in the crash.

中国教育部说，机上有70名中国师生，原计划去美国参加入大学前的交流项目。韩亚航空和中国官员表示，其中王琳佳和叶梦圆在事故中遇难。

In the first on-scene briefing by the NTSB, Ms. Hersman said a preliminary readout of the plane's flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders indicated that everything was normal─with no discussion of any onboard problems or concerns about the visual approach in good weather─until just seven seconds before impact.

赫斯曼在听取了美国国家运输安全委员会的现场汇报后说，对飞机飞行数据和驾驶舱录音器的初步分析表明，本来一切正常，在飞机还有七秒钟着陆之前，飞行员没有提到飞机有任何问题，也没有对好天气下的目视进场有任何担心。

At that point, she told reporters, the cockpit crew realized the plane was flying too slowly. 'The speed was significantly below' the designated approach speed of roughly 160 miles per hour.

赫斯曼对记者说，驾驶舱机组成员到那时才发现飞机的飞行速度过慢。她说，飞机当时的降落速度远低于每小时约260公里的指定进场速度。

Three seconds later, a stall-warning activated in the cockpit, indicating the jet was losing aerodynamic lift, Ms. Hersman said. The crew didn't act to sharply increase engine thrust and try to climb away from the runway─conducting what is called a 'go-around'─until 1.5 seconds before impact, she said.

赫斯曼说，三秒钟后，驾驶舱内的一个失速警告系统启动，显示飞机正在失去气动升力。她说，直到撞击发生前1.5秒钟，机组人员才采取行动大幅提升引擎推力，试图拉升高度，即所谓的“重飞”。

The safety board believes 'the engines appear to respond normally' to those commands, Ms. Hersman said, but by then it was too late to recover and portions of the lumbering jet slammed into the sea wall in front of the strip.

赫斯曼说，美国国家运输安全委员会认为，引擎对这些指令似乎反应正常，但那时候要重飞已经太迟了，飞机的一些部分撞上了跑道前的防波堤。

Ms. Hersman stressed that there was 'no prior distress call' from the cockpit crew, which should have been able to rely on both ground-based and onboard landing aids to 'establish an approach path' to safely reach the beginning of the runway.

赫斯曼强调说，驾驶舱内的机组人员事发前没有发出遇险信号。机组成员原本应该能够依靠地面上和飞机上的着陆辅助系统建立一条降落通道，安全到达跑道的起点处。

Since the jet was on a visual approach in excellent weather, 'you don't need instruments to get into the airport' safely,' Ms. Hersman said.

赫斯曼说，由于飞机是在非常好的天气条件下进行目视降落，所以无需仪表也应该能够安全进入机场。

In another significant disclosure, she said investigators 'haven't identified any specific similarities' between Saturday's crash and the 2008 belly landing of another Boeing 777, operated by British Airways, -1.16% on final approach to London's Heathrow International Airport. Investigators determined the British jet's engines were starved of fuel after chunks of ice blocked its fuel system. Nobody was injured, but the incident prompted changes to the 777's fuel systems.

她说，调查人员尚未确定上周六的飞机失事与2008年英国航空公司(British Airways)运营的一架波音777飞机腹部着陆事件之间有任何具体的相似之处。英航的飞机是在伦敦希思罗国际机场(Heathrow International Airport)降落时发生事故的。这可以说又是一项重大的信息披露。调查人员确认英航的飞机被冰块阻断了燃油系统，引擎严重缺油。在那起事故中，无人受伤，但事故促使工程人员对波音777飞机的燃油系统进行了改进。

Taken together, the preliminary data and Ms. Hersman's early description strongly suggest investigators are leaning away from mechanical or other system failures as the likely culprit.

初步数据以及赫斯曼的初步描述加在一起强烈显示出，调查人员正在排除飞机失事可能是由机械故障或其他系统性故障造成的。

A young co-pilot with significantly less experience than the captain of the aircraft was at the controls of the Boeing 777 when it crashed, according to people familiar with the situation.

据知情人士说，韩亚航空的这架波音777飞机失事时，控制飞机的是一名年轻的副驾驶，这位副驾驶的经验远远不及机长。

The co-pilot, believed to be 'around 30 years old,' according to people familiar with the situation, was following a routine visual approach. None of the pilots radioed flight controllers about any onboard problems or declared an emergency, according to preliminary reports.

据知情人士说，这位副驾驶据信年龄在30岁左右，当时正在依照常规进行目视降落。据初步报告显示，几名飞行员都没有通过无线电向机场控制塔台报告任何机上问题或声明出现紧急状况。

There were four pilots in the cockpit during the approach: the captain, co-pilot, a 'relief pilot' and a fourth pilot, who may not have been on duty at the time. None of the pilots sustained any significant injuries, said people familiar with the situation.

降落过程中驾驶舱内有四名飞行员：机长、副驾驶、接班飞行员和第四名飞行员。第四名飞行员当时可能不当值。知情人士说，四位飞行员都没有严重受伤。

After spending the night at the airport, the pilots checked into a San Francisco hotel Sunday. NTSB and Korean investigators tentatively scheduled interviews with the crew for Monday.

在机场度过了一夜后，飞行员们周日入住了旧金山一家酒店。美国国家运输安全委员会和韩国的调查人员初步定于周一对机组人员进行讯问。

The last major U.S. air accident occurred in 2009, when a Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 flown by regional carrier Colgan Air crashed on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing 50 people.

美国上一次发生严重空难是在2009年，当时地区航空公司Colgan Air运营的一架庞巴迪(Bombardier) Dash-8 Q400在布法罗尼亚加拉国际机场(Buffalo Niagara International Airport)降落时坠毁，造成50人死亡。

At a news conference in Seoul midafternoon Sunday, Asiana President Yoon Young-doo and a group of executives bowed in apology. Mr. Yoon called the accident 'regretful.'

周日下午在首尔举行的新闻发布会上，韩亚航空总裁尹永斗(Yoon Young-doo)和高管们鞠躬道歉。尹永斗称这起事故“令人遗憾”。

The airline doesn't believe the accident was caused by an engine or mechanical problem, Mr. Yoon said, but added that all facts related to the investigation would be announced by the NTSB. Mr. Yoon also said the pilots on the flight were veterans with around 10,000 hours of flying time each.

尹永斗说，韩亚航空并不认为这次事故是由发动机或者机械问题造成的，但他还说，所有相关调查事实将由美国国家运输安全委员会来宣布。尹永斗说，机上的飞行员经验丰富，每个人的累计飞行时间都在10,000小时左右。

One issue likely to come under review by investigators is the overall experience and hand-flying skills of the pilots, who couldn't rely on all elements of an airport instrument-landing system as a backstop.

调查人员可能对飞行员的总体经验和手控飞行技术进行评估，他们不能在所有情况下都依赖仪表着陆系统。

Since last month, pilots landing at the busy airport have been warned that one type of approach aid has been temporarily turned off while work is under way to improve the strip. Alternate ground-based aids were functioning as the Asiana jet descended with both engines on idle.

自上月以来，在忙碌的旧金山国际机场着陆的飞行员都一直被告知一种进场着陆导航设备已被暂时关闭，改进这种设备的工作正在进行中。当这架韩亚航空飞机关闭发动机降落时备用地面着陆导航设备正在运行。

In the cockpit, according to investigators and industry safety experts, there also should have been alerts if a landing plane is descending too quickly or its trajectory threatens to take it short of the runway threshold.

据调查人员和行业安全专家称，如果一架正在着陆的飞机降落速度过快或者其降落轨道有偏离跑道入口的风险，驾驶舱内也应当会发出警报。

If onboard flight-control and speed management systems were working normally as the safety board suggests, then 'guidance was available to the crew' about an approach that was becoming dangerously slow and low, said safety consultant John Cox, a former airline pilot and accident investigator.

安全顾问考克斯(John Cox)说，如果机上飞行控制和速度管理系统如安全委员会所说运行正常，那么在飞机进场速度和高度过低时机组是能够获得引导的。考克斯曾做过飞行员和事故调查员。

While visual approaches typically don't require any assistance from instrument-landing systems, safety experts said some airlines prefer to have pilots rely on them as an additional safeguard under nearly all circumstances.

尽管目视进场通常不需要任何仪表着陆系统的辅助，但安全专家说，一些航空公司倾向于让飞行员在几乎所有情况下都将这些系统作为安全辅助。

Investigators also are expected to examine if pilot fatigue or flight-control problems contributed to the accident, and whether air-traffic control instructions may have been a factor.

预计调查人员还将调查事故是否是飞行员疲劳或者飞行控制问题造成的，以及空中交通控制指令是否是造成事故的一个因素。

The aircraft should have been flying roughly 100 or 150 feet above the airport's surface when its tires or tail apparently smacked into a stretch of the sea wall and the jet began breaking apart, experts said. Large pieces of the tail section and scrape marks were visible near the sea wall, and both left and right portions of the landing gear were found hundreds of yards away from the main wreckage.

专家说，当这架飞机的轮胎或者尾翼撞入防波堤并且机身开始后解体时，它本应在距离机场地面大概100英尺或者150英尺的高度上飞行。防波堤附近可以看到机尾的大块残骸和刮痕，左右两侧起落架在距离飞机主体数百米的地方被找到。

Despite the Asiana jet losing both left and right landing gear, its rear bulkhead, portions of the wings and at least one engine, early reports indicated that the crew and airport emergency officials quickly evacuated most passengers, before an intense fire melted its aluminum skin and left a giant gash replacing what had been the top half of the middle of the fuselage.

尽管这架韩亚航空飞机左右两侧起落架、后舱壁、机翼的一部分以及至少一个发动机脱落，但据较早的报道称，在飞机燃起大火之前，机组和机场的紧急救援人员迅速疏散了大部分乘客。大火导致飞机的铝制外壳融化，机身中间顶部出现一个巨大的裂缝。

The Boeing 777 has had a nearly unblemished record, and previously was among a small group of long-range jets from Boeing and Airbus to have never sustained a fatality in passenger service.

波音777飞机几乎从未发生过事故，此前是为数不多的从未发生过乘客死亡事故的波音和空客远程飞机中的一个机型。

The worst U.S. accident before the 2009 Colgan crash came in 2001, when an American Airlines Airbus A300 crashed on Long Island, N.Y., shortly after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing 265 people.

2009年Colgan航空公司空难发生前，美国最严重的一次空难发生在2001年，当时美国航空公司(American Airlines)的一架空客A300客机在从肯尼迪国际机场(John F. Kennedy International Airport)起飞后不久在纽约长岛坠毁，造成265人死亡。