第二塊疑似飛機殘骸被衝上留尼汪島

A second piece of suspected plane debris has washed ashore on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion as a wing part found nearby suspected to have come from missing flight MH370 arrived in France for analysis.

第二塊疑似飛機殘骸被衝上印度洋法屬留尼汪島(La Réunion)。與此同時，此前在附近發現的疑似來自失蹤的MH370航班的一塊機翼部件已被送到法國接受檢測。

The discovery of the metallic object on Sunday — reported on a local radio station as being a possible door of a plane — follows confirmation from authorities that a piece of aircraft debris washed up on La Réunion and found on Wednesday is from a Boeing 777, raising hopes that it comes from the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft that disappeared 17 months ago.

週日發現金屬物件（據當地電臺報道可能是飛機艙門）之前，有關部門證實，上週三發現的被衝上留尼汪島的一塊飛機碎片來自一架波音777(Boeing 777)飛機，這意味着它很有可能來自17個月以前消失的那架馬來西亞航空公司(Malaysia Airlines)飛機。

But police say the debris found on Sunday is not yet being treated as evidence and one Malaysian official cast doubt on it being related to MH370, telling the Associated Press that it was not a door but a domestic ladder.

但警方表示，週日發現的碎片尚未被視爲證據。一名馬來西亞官員懷疑其是否與MH370航班有關聯，這名官員對美聯社(Associated Press)表示，那不是一扇門，而是家用扶梯。

The earlier piece, identified as a flaperon, was escorted by police on Saturday from Paris to the defence ministry laboratory in Balma, near Toulouse. La Réunion is a French territory, which is why the country is leading the investigation.

先前發現的殘骸已被確定是一塊襟副翼。上週六，它在警方護送下從巴黎被運抵圖盧茲附近巴爾馬(Balma)的國防部實驗室。留尼汪島是法國領土，因此目前由法國牽頭進行調查。

The disappearance of MH370, which vanished on March 8 2014 while travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying 239 people, has been one of the biggest mysteries in aviation.

載有239人的MH370航班2014年3月8日在從吉隆坡飛往北京途中失聯，這起事件成爲航空史上最大的謎團之一。

“The flaperon is officially identified as being part of a Boeing 777,” said Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysia’s transport minister, on Sunday. “If more debris can be found it will aid the experts in the substantive analysis of what happened to the missing plane MH370.”

“這塊襟副翼被正式確定爲來自一架波音777，”馬來西亞交通部長廖中萊(Liow Tiong Lai)週日表示。“如果能夠發現更多碎片，那將有助於專家們對MH370飛機的失事真相進行實質性分析。”

If the pieces are from the missing flight, it could provide critical clues to its fate. The plane suddenly changed course to the west after heading north-east from Kuala Lumpur. It then lost contact with air traffic control.

如果這些殘骸被確認來自失聯航班，它可能提供關於飛機失事真相的關鍵線索。該機從吉隆坡起飛後，最初朝東北方向飛行，後來突然改變航向向西飛行，隨即與空管部門失聯。

Malaysia, Australia and China have been conducting an extensive search, working on the theory that it crashed within a 120,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean, 1,800km south-west of Australia.

馬來西亞、澳大利亞和中國一直在大片海域進行搜索，他們的推測是，該機在南印度洋一個12萬平方公里的區域內墜毀，位於澳大利亞西南方向1800公里處。

Experts said the discovery of the wreckage washed up on La Réunion, a long way from the theoretical crash zone, was consistent with the direction of the ocean currents.

專家們表示，在遠離理論推定的墜機海域的留尼汪島發現被衝上岸的飛機碎片，與洋流方向是吻合的。

News of Sunday’s find was originally reported on a local radio station as being a possible door of a plane. It was described as a large metal object, covered in foreign writing.

週日發現第二塊碎片的新聞最初由當地一家電臺報道，稱其是一個大的金屬物件，疑似一扇飛機艙門，上面有外國文字。

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said on Thursday that the discovery of the wreckage on the island was “not inconsistent with the current search location” that is 4,200km east of La Réunion.

澳大利亞交通安全局(Australian Transport Safety Bureau)上週四表示，在留尼汪島發現飛機殘骸“與當前的搜索位置並不矛盾”；當前搜索位置在留尼汪島以東4200公里。

In April, the MH370 search plans, which have already included the scouring of 55,000 sq km of sea floor, were revised to expand the original search area from 60,000 sq km to 120,000 sq km, if required.

今年4月，有關方面調整了MH370的搜索計劃（已經包括對5.5萬平方公里的海底進行拉網式搜索），將搜索區域從最初的6萬平方公里擴大至12萬平方公里（如果需要的話）。

Australian officials had indicated that if nothing was found by that stage, then the search operation for the airliner would not be extended. The undersea search is one of the most expensive in aviation history, costing about $150m to date.

澳大利亞官員曾表示，如果屆時仍一無所獲，搜索這架客機的行動將不會被延長。此次海底搜索是航空史上最昂貴的搜尋行動之一，迄今已耗資約1.5億美元。