【双语泛读】东航空难初步调查报告发布，未能解开坠机谜团

Mystery Persists After Initial Report Into China Eastern Jet Crash

东航空难初步调查报告发布，未能解开坠机谜团

BEIJING — The pilots had met China’s standards for flying a commercial jet. No problems were found with the aircraft before it took off. No dangerous cargo had been loaded aboard. Communications with the plane appeared normal until its deadly plunge.

北京——飞行员资质符合中国商用飞机的飞行标准。飞机起飞前没有发现任何问题。机上未装载任何危险货物。在坠毁前，与机组的通讯未见异常。

A preliminary report released on Wednesday by China’s aviation safety regulator failed to dispel much of the mystery about why a China Eastern jet suddenly went into a nosedive in clear weather last month and crashed into a muddy hillside, killing all 132 people aboard. The report mainly cataloged what was previously known about the crash.

上个月，一架中国东方航空公司客机在晴朗天气下突然俯冲并坠落在一处泥泞山坡，机上132人全部遇难。中国航空安全监管机构周三发布的一份初步报告未能解开这一谜团。该报告主要对坠机事件的已知信息进行了归类。

“The investigation found that the flight and cabin crew onboard, as well as the maintenance and clearance personnel, met qualification requirements,” the report said. “Before it deviated from cruising altitude, there was nothing abnormal in wireless communications between the crew and air control or in the control commands.”

“经调查，当班飞行机组、客舱机组和维修放行人员资质符合要求，”报告称。“在偏离巡航高度前，机组与空管部门的无线电通信和管制指挥未见异常。”

The report also suggested that obtaining more evidence from the plane’s two flight recorders could take some time. “The two recorders on the plane were severely damaged in the crash,” it said, “and data recovery and analysis is proceeding.”

该报告还暗示，从机上的两个飞行记录器中获取更多证据可能需要一些时间。报告称：“机上两部记录器由于撞击严重受损，数据修复及分析工作仍在进行中。”

As a signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, China’s regulator was under an obligation to produce a preliminary report on Wednesday, 30 days after the crash. But a summary statement issued by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, did not put forward any theories to address why the plane, a Boeing 737-800, suddenly turned almost vertical while cruising at 29,000 feet and maintained that position except for a brief surge upward about two-thirds of the way down to the ground.

作为《国际民用航空公约》的签署国，中国监管机构有义务在坠机30天后，即本周三，提交一份初步报告。但监管机构中国民用航空局发布的一份总结性声明没有提出任何推论来解释为什么这架波音737-800在8900米的高度巡航时突然几乎以垂直角度下落，在下落过程三分之二的地方短暂爬升后又恢复了垂直下落，直至坠毁。

Commercial jets are designed to be naturally stable from front to back while in flight. They do not fly almost straight down at very high speed unless extreme force is continuously applied to the horizontal stabilizers on either side of the tail, aviation experts said in the days after the crash.

商用喷气式飞机的设计旨在使飞机在飞行时自然趋向水平。航空专家在坠机后的几天里说，飞机几乎不会垂直向下高速飞行，除非在飞机尾部两侧的水平稳定器上持续施加极大的力量。

A mechanical failure or software error can cause the horizontal stabilizers to malfunction, or a pilot can deliberately force the plane to fly almost straight down. The report did not address these possibilities. But it did mention that key components of the tail had been found at the crater left by the plane in a bamboo-swathed hillside.

机械故障或软件错误可能导致水平稳定器发生故障，或者飞行员可以故意迫使飞机几乎垂直向下飞行。该报告没有提到这些可能性。但它提到，事故现场是一片竹林覆盖的山坡，飞机尾部的关键部件在飞机的撞击坑中找到。

The aircraft’s engines were also found there.

那里还发现了飞机的发动机。

Earlier this month, Wu Shijie, a safety official from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, cautioned against a plethora of theories about the crash that had spread online within China. Some of these theories have suggested pilot suicide as a cause of the crash. Chinese aviation authorities have stepped up checks on the health and mental well-being of commercial aircraft pilots in recent days.

本月早些时候，对于中国网络上出现的大量关于坠机事故的说法，中国民用航空局安全官员吴世杰提出了警告。其中一些推测认为坠机原因是飞行员自杀。最近几天，中国航空当局加强了对商用飞机飞行员的身心健康检查。

But Mr. Wu said these measures for pilots should not be taken as a sign that the cause of the crash had been identified. “We still cannot come to a conclusion on the cause and nature” of the crash, he told reporters, according to an official Chinese aviation news website.

但吴世杰表示，这些针对飞行员的措施并不表示找到了坠机原因。据中国官方航空新闻网站报道，他告诉记者，“还不能给事故原因和性质下结论”。

China has tried to show openness and comply with international standards for air crash investigations. It has sent both black boxes to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington for analysis.

中国试图表现出开放性，并遵守空难调查的国际标准。该国已将两个黑匣子送到华盛顿的美国国家运输安全委员会进行分析。

The N.T.S.B. has also sent a team to the crash site in southern China to help with the investigation. China allowed the team to enter the country without going through the usual three weeks or more of quarantine, allowing the visiting investigators to follow instead the “travel bubble” requirements used during the Beijing Winter Olympics. Those standards call for daily P.C.R. testing for Covid-19 and severely restrict contact with Chinese citizens.

美国国家运输安全委员会还派出工作组前往位于中国南部的坠机现场协助调查。中国允许工作组在没有经过通常三周或更久隔离的情况下入境，而是要求来访的调查人员遵循北京冬奥会期间使用的“旅行泡泡”闭环措施。这些标准要求每日核酸检测并严格限制与中国公民的接触。