哥倫比亞客機遭雷擊墜毀 僅1人遇難
A Boeing 737 crash-landed Monday on a Colombian resort island during a lightning storm, scattering passengers across the runway as it split in three, but somehow only one passenger died.
A 73-year-old woman suffered a heart attack and died in hospital, but officials said it was a "miracle" there were no more fatalities among the 130 survivors, most of whom suffered some kind of injury.
The plane was struck by lightning 80 meters (250 feet) above the tarmac at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla airport on the Caribbean island of San Andres, aviation officials said, but the cause of the crash was still under investigation.
Passengers were "literally scattered over the end of the runway," a police statement said. The authorities later put the number of injured at more than 120, five of them seriously.
There were at least 16 foreigners on board the Boeing 737-300, including six French, four Brazilians, four Americans and two Costa Ricans.
"We all felt the plane was arriving very, very quickly on the tarmac," 28-year-old Virginie Giroux, one of the French passengers said.
"We did not feel the contact with the ground. We just saw everything flying, everything bursting in the plane."
Orlando Paez Baron, director of civil security from Colombia's national police, said the pilot had briefly lost control of the aircraft but showed skill in keeping the plane on the runway.
The plane, belonging to Colombia's Aires airline, left Bogota shortly after midnight and crashed in San Andres in conditions of reduced visibility about two hours later, according to air traffic controllers.
San Andres's governor Pedro Gallardo said it was only good fortune that prevented there being more casualties among the 131 people on board.
"We thank God for the miracle granted to this archipelago," he told national radio. "The captain, the co-pilot and all the crew are safe."
本週一，一架波音737客機在哥倫比亞一個旅遊海島降落時遭遇雷擊，不幸墜毀，被摔成三截，機上乘客四散在跑道上，但所幸僅有一名乘客身亡。
飛機失事後，一名73歲的老婦因心臟病發作，被送往醫院搶救無效後去世，但有關官員稱，其餘130名乘客全部生還簡直是個“奇蹟”。大部分倖存者都受了點傷。
據當地航空部門官員介紹，這架客機在距離加勒比海聖安德列斯島的古斯塔沃•羅哈斯•皮尼利亞機場停機坪上空80米（250英尺）處遭遇雷擊，但具體的墜毀原因仍在調查之中。
哥倫比亞警方在一份聲明中稱，機上的乘客“差不多是四散在跑道的盡頭”。據有關部門統計，此次事故造成120多人受傷，其中5人傷勢較重。
當天，這架波音737-300客機至少搭載了16名外國人，包括6名法國人、4名巴西人、4名美國人以及兩名哥斯達黎加人。
28歲的法國乘客維爾吉尼·吉魯說：“我們都感覺到飛機疾速地落向停機坪。”
“我們沒有感覺到飛機落到了地面上，只是看到飛機裏的東西四處亂飛，爆裂聲此起彼伏。”
哥倫比亞國家警察局民事安全部門負責人奧蘭多·派斯·巴倫表示，失事飛機曾一度失控，但飛行員憑藉高超的技術成功避免了飛機衝出跑道。
據航空管制官員介紹，這架隸屬於哥倫比亞阿伊列斯航空公司的客機在午夜時分從波哥大起飛，兩小時後因能見度降低在聖安德列斯島墜毀。
聖安德列斯省長佩德羅•加拉多稱，131名乘客中僅有一人遇難，真是幸運。
他在接受國家電臺採訪時說：“這堪稱一個奇蹟，感謝上帝。機長、副駕駛和所有機組人員都安然無恙。”
Vocabulary:
crash-land: to land (an aircraft) in an emergency causing damage or (of an aircraft) to land in this way（緊急降落）
tarmac: a runway at an airport（停機坪）
archipelago: 羣島，列島
