韓亞失事客機是波音777首次致命事故

The crash of an Asiana Airlines aircraft marks the first fatal accident and only the second serious incident in the 18-year life of Boeing’s twin-engined 777 – one of the most popular passenger jets in the world today.

韓亞航空(Asiana Airlines)一架客機失事，標誌着波音(Boeing) 777投入商業運營18年來的首次致命事故和第二起嚴重事故。這種雙發飛機是當今世界上最受歡迎的噴氣式客機之一。

It is also the first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in the US for almost five years and comes at a time when fatal crashes in the developed world are increasingly rare. Last year was the safest in terms of number of accidents since 1945 – according to the Aviation Safety Network – when commercial aviation was in its infancy and a fraction of the number of flights operated compared with today.

這也是美國近五年來首次有商業航空公司發生有乘客罹難的墜機事故，目前發達國家發生致命墜機的情況越來越少見。根據航空安全網絡(Aviation Safety Network)的數據，就事故次數而言，去年是自1945年以來最安全的一年；1945年時，商業航空仍處於襁褓時期，航班數量與當今不可同日而語。

Just what caused the Asiana crash in San Francisco, which left two people dead, will take some time for investigators to establish.

究竟是什麼原因導致韓亞客機在舊金山墜毀，導致兩人死亡，將需要調查人員花費一段時間確定。

The 777 is a widely used long-haul airliner. Boeing says it has delivered 888 passenger variants of the jet. Among these, 421 have been the 777-200ER variant involved in Saturday’s accident.

波音777是一種廣泛使用的長程客機。波音表示，至今已交付888架客機型號的777，其中421架是上週六失事的777-200ER型。

Initial reports of what happened to the aircraft as it was on its final approach to San Francisco International Airport suggest some similarities to the only other crash of a 777. In 2008, a British Airways 777-200ER crash-landed just short of the runway at London’s Heathrow airport.

有關失事客機降落舊金山國際機場時最後進場階段情況的初步報告似乎表明，這起事故與777唯一的另一次墜機事故有一些類似之處。2008年，英國航空(British Airways)一架777-200ER曾在倫敦希思羅機場跑道外緊急降落。

Remarkably, no one was killed in that crash and a subsequent investigation revealed that ice particles had clogged the fuel system, causing both engines to fail on final approach. The problem was identified as specific to the Rolls-Royce engines that powered the BA jet and has since been fixed.

所幸那起墜機事故未導致人員喪生，隨後進行的調查發現，燃料系統因結冰而堵塞，導致兩臺發動機均在最後進場階段失靈。經查明，這個問題僅發生於英航客機所用的羅爾斯•羅伊斯(Rolls-Royce)發動機，而且在那之後已得到糾正。

The Asiana jet was powered by engines built by Pratt & Whitney of the US and technical experts say that no similar issues were found with those engines. A UK-led investigation into the BA crash recommended that other engine types were checked.

韓亞失事客機所用的發動機出自美國普惠公司(Pratt & Whitney)。技術專家們表示，這些發動機沒有發現類似問題。由英國牽頭的針對英航墜機的調查建議，對其它型號的發動機也進行檢查。

Speculating about the likely causes of the crash this early into the investigation is always difficult. But Jock Lowe, a former BA director of flight operations and the world’s longest-serving Concorde pilot, said the most telling statement so far had come from the chief executive of the South Korean airline.

在調查初步階段對墜機原因進行猜測始終是困難的。但是，英航前航班運營總監、全球服役時間最長的協和式(Concorde)超音速客機飛行員喬克•羅威(Jock Lowe)表示，迄今最說明問題的聲明出自韓亞航空首席執行官之口。

“Currently we understand that there were no engine or mechanical problems,” Yoon Young-doo, Asiana chief executive, told a news conference in Seoul.

“據我們目前所知，失事前沒有發動機或機械故障，”韓亞航空首席執行官尹永鬥(Yoon Young-doo)在首爾舉行的一場新聞發佈會上表示。

The advanced systems on the jet will have provided constant feedback to Asiana engineers on the ground monitoring more than 4,000 different aircraft settings every second, according to Mr Lowe.

據羅威介紹，飛機上的先進系統會每秒監測逾4000項飛機運行參數，並向韓亞的地面工程技術人員持續提供反饋。

“Although the Asiana crash looks very similar to the BA incident at Heathrow there are two big differences,” said Mr Lowe. “Firstly, the aircraft had Pratt & Whitney engines, and secondly the airline has said there were no problems with them.”

“雖然韓亞此次墜機看上去很像英航在希思羅發生的事故，但實際上有兩大不同點，”羅威表示。“首先，這架飛機配備的是普惠發動機，其次，航空公司已表示，這些發動機沒有問題。”

Mr Lowe said that in the immediate aftermath of the BA crash, the pilots who had nursed the aircraft on to the ground, had immediately pointed a finger at the engines.

羅威稱，英航發生墜機後，勉強駕駛飛機着陸的飛行員立即指出發動機有問題。

The Asiana pilots will similarly be able to help crash investigators. They were among the survivors of the 291 passengers and 17 crew on board. The two people killed were reported to be Chinese nationals sitting at the back of the aircraft.

韓亞航空的飛行員也將同樣能夠協助墜機調查。機上291名乘客和17名機組人員生還，飛行員也在生還者之列。兩名罹難者據報道是坐在飛機後排的中國公民。

Mr Lowe said the most likely two causes of the crash were problems with the aircraft’s flight control surfaces, which might have been harder to pick up immediately, or pilot error.

羅威表示，此次墜機的兩大可能原因是飛機的飛行操縱裝置有問題（此類問題可能不易馬上發現）或者飛行員失誤。

The Asiana aircraft was reported to have been flying far too slowly on approach. It was reportedly flying at an air speed of 98 knots. Normal approach speed is between 135 and 140 knots.

有報道稱，失事的韓亞客機在進場時速度過低。當時其空速據報道只有每小時98海里，而正常的進場時速應當在135至140海里之間。