距离马航MH370航班失事已有23天，从"失联"到"终结"，整个世界为之悬心。经历了悲恸与绝望，我们仍在等待真相浮出水面。
【失联前后】
3月8日凌晨，MH370载着239个生命出发，本应降落在北京，却终结于印度洋。
Saturday, March 8, 2014
12:41 am
马航MH370(波音777-200机型)离开吉隆坡，飞往北京。机上共227名乘客，其中154人来自中国，以及12名马来西亚机组人员。
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200 jetliner, leaves Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers on board, 154 of whom are Chinese, and a Malaysian crew of 12.
1:07 am
客机的ACARS(飞机自动通讯寻址报告系统)发送了一次信号，该系统用于传输飞机状态数据。ACARS应在半小时后再次发送信号。
The airplane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which transmits data about the plane's performance, sends a transmission. It is not due to transmit again for a half-hour.
1:19 am
副驾驶哈米德从驾驶舱向马来西亚地面控制中心发送最后一次语音通话："好的，晚安。"几分钟后，飞机监控将被转交给越南，但后者没有接收到MH370的任何信号。
Co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid sends the last voice transmission from the cockpit to Malaysian ground control, saying, "All right, good night." Within a few minutes, the plane was to be handed over to Vietnamese controllers, but they never heard from MH370.
1:21 am
通话结束两分钟后，飞机的应答机被关闭或出现故障。应答机用于向其他飞机和地面空管汇报飞机的航班号、高度和速度。
Two minutes after the last voice transmission, the plane's transponder, which signals its identity, altitude and speed to other aircraft and to monitors on the ground, is shut off or fails.
1:37 am
ACARS系统未能准时发送信号，说明在过去的30分钟内，系统已被关闭或出现故障。
The ACARS system fails to send its scheduled signal, indicating that it has been shut off or has failed sometime in the past half-hour.
2:15 am
军用雷达发现一架不明飞行器朝西飞去。它爬升至13700米，超过了波音777的飞行高度限制，之后不稳定地下降至7000米。调查发现这正是MH370。
An unidentified plane flying westward is detected by military radar. It ascends to 45,000ft (13,700 meters), which is above the approved limit for a Boeing 777, then descends unevenly to 23,000ft (7,000 meters). Investigators later conclude that it was MH370.
6:30 am
此时MH370本应到达北京。
By now MH370 was scheduled to have landed in Beijing.
7:24 am
马航宣布客机失联。
Malaysia Airlines announces that it has lost contact with the aircraft.
8:11 am
飞机上的自动系统向卫星发出最后一次完整信号，说明当时飞机仍在飞行。马方称，在这之后飞机航油或能保证再飞行半小时。
The last complete signal is received from an automated satellite system on the plane, suggesting that it was still flying. The Malaysian authorities say the jet had enough fuel to keep flying for perhaps a half-hour after this.
8:19 am
卫星通讯公司Inmarsat称，或收到客机发出的不完整信号。
Inmarsat, a satellite communications company, says an incomplete signal may have been received.
之后的卫星数据分析确定飞机坠入南印度洋。
Further analysis of satellite data confirms that the jet went down in the southern Indian Ocean.
【未解疑团】
是什么导致了MH370的悲剧，太多的疑团有待解决。
[机舱里发生了什么？]
也许乘客家属们最想知道的是，飞机坠落前机舱里发生了什么。如果没有发生重大的故障或劫机事件，乘客是否根本就不知道出了问题？但马来西亚官方称飞机在改变航向后，爬升到了13700米，之后又下降至7000米。航空专家称飞机急速上升会导致缺氧，进而导致乘客昏迷甚至死亡。
Perhaps the biggest question for the families of passengers is likely to concern what happened on board before the plane went down. If no major malfunction or a hijack occurred, is it possible that the passengers did not know anything was wrong? Malaysian authorities have said the plane rose to 45,000ft, before falling to 23,000ft after it changed course. Aviation experts said that the plane's climb may have induced hypoxia (缺氧), an inadequate supply of oxygen, which could have knocked people unconscious or even killed them in the air.
[谁在控制飞机？]
调查人员尚未完全排除劫机或飞机故障的可能性，但现有证据似乎都指向是某个掌握飞行知识的人的蓄意行为。专家称，劫机者只有2分钟的作案机会，即从副驾驶最后一次和空管通话到飞机应答机被关闭。而这段时间里，没有任何求救信号发出。此外，无人声称对此事件负责，也是专家在劫机理论上存在分歧的一个原因。
Investigators have not ruled out the theory of a hijacking or aircraft malfunction, but evidence so far appears to suggest a deliberate act by someone with aviation knowledge. Experts say a hijacker would only have had a two-minute window of opportunity, from the moment the co-pilot last spoke to air traffic control to when the plane's transponder was turned off. No distress signals were made during this time. Experts are divided on this theory, also partly because no one has convincingly claimed responsibility.
当然飞机上的故障也有可能摧毁通讯系统，却仍能使飞机在无人驾驶的情况下继续飞行数小时，但专家认为这种可能性非常小。调查重点逐渐聚焦到两个飞行员身上——53岁的机长沙阿和27岁的副机长哈米德。
Any on-board malfunction would have had to knock out the communications systems and yet allow the plane to fly on for several hours, perhaps on autopilot – which experts have said is very unlikely. Inquiries appear to be increasingly focused on the 2 pilots – Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27.
[如果是蓄意行为，动机是什么？]
如果飞机是被蓄意操纵并坠毁的，那么其动机是什么，调查人员仍一头雾水。警察尚未找到证据证明两个飞行员有阴谋，或有心理问题，或与恐怖主义相关。联邦调查局仍在调查沙阿自制的飞行模拟器。沙阿的一个朋友称他因为妻子离家出走而悲痛欲绝，"没有心思开飞机"。但没有证据表明他会因为家事而采取如此极端的行动。外国情报机构已对所有乘客进行了两轮排查，没有发现疑点。
If the plane was crashed deliberately, investigators are still struggling to find a motive. Police have found no evidence of a plot between the pilots, no signs of psychological problems and no links to terrorism. The FBI is still examining Shah's home-built flight simulator. A friend of Shah's said that the pilot had been distraught after his wife moved out of their family home and was "in no state of mind to be flying", but there is no evidence to suggest that he would take such extreme action over his family affairs. Foreign intelligence agencies have also conducted two rounds of checks on all the passengers and found nothing suspicious.
[为什么飞向印度洋？]
飞机坠毁的区域据信是地球最与世隔绝的角落之一，离原定航线数千里之遥，远离任何陆地和商业航线。是什么原因使得它在起飞1个小时后突然左拐然后转向南印度洋，仍然是个谜团。如果飞机是有意奔向毁灭，那么为什么要飞这么远，又为什么是那个方向？
The area where the plane is believed to have crashed is thousands of miles from its planned flight path in one of the most isolated regions in the world, far from any land or commercial airline routes. Yet the reason why the plane made its initial sharp left turn an hour into the flight and headed toward the southern Indian Ocean remains a mystery. If the plane was deliberately crashed, why fly so far away and why in that direction?
【搜寻MH370】
纷繁复杂的信息导致前期搜救工作遭受重重挫折，所幸现在线索已经渐渐明朗。
根据《华尔街日报》的消息，早在3月11日，英国卫星公司Inmarsat已经提供数据，表明MH370并不在当时各国正在搜寻的泰国湾和中国南海，而是落在了向南或向北两个走廊的某处。而马来西亚政府直到3月15日才公开承认并发布这一信息。
British satellite company Inmarsat provided data on March 11 suggesting the aircraft was nowhere near the areas in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea being searched at that time and may have diverted its course through a southern or northern corridor. The information was only publicly acknowledged and released by Malaysian government on March 15, according to the Wall Street Journal.
直到3月18日，澳大利亚海事安全局才将位于南部走廊的印度洋的搜寻范围缩小至60万平方公里。从某种意义上来说，MH370的搜救行动到这时才真正开始，而飞机已经消失10天了。
It was not until March 18 that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority narrowed the search field to a 600,000 sq km area in the Indian Ocean in the southern search corridor. In a way, it could be said the search only really began in earnest after March 18, 10 days after MH370 vanished.
目前已有26个国家参与搜寻工作。中国动用了21颗卫星、数十架次飞机和10余艘舰艇进行搜救，其中包括"雪龙"号极地破冰船和海事旗舰"海巡01"轮。美国则派遣了拖曳声波定位仪和"金枪鱼-21"水下自动潜航器到珀斯协助定位找回黑匣子。
26 countries have joined in the search. China has employed 21 satellites, dozens of plane sorties and over 10 ships, including the icebreaker "Xuelong" and Chinese Maritime Safety Administration patrol ship "Haixun 01". The US has sent a towed pinger locator and Bluefin-21 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to Perth to assist with location and recovery of the black box.
28日，由于最新分析显示MH370的飞行速度比原先设想的更快，燃油也更早耗尽，所以MH370的搜寻范围往东北方向转移了1千多公里。飞机在新的区域很快发现了多个物体。现在各国力量正努力打捞到这些物体以证明其是否与失联航班相关。
The search for MH370 was shifted more than 1,000 km to the northeast Friday after new analysis indicated that the aircraft was traveling faster than previously thought - and therefore ran out of fuel much sooner, and planes quickly found multiple objects in the new zone. The multinational search team is yet to recover any of these objects to determine whether they are from the missing jetliner or not.
【科普：深海打捞】
一旦找到残骸碎片，深海打捞工作将逐步展开，其中涉及的各类"秘密武器"，你知道多少？
[黑匣子]
--黑匣子不是黑色的
黑匣子的色调是所谓的"国际橘"，这是在航空航天行业中用于醒目标示的一种颜色。
In color, they are a tone of what's known as international orange, which is a color used in the aerospace industry to set objects apart from their surroundings.
--黑匣子包括两部分
黑匣子由两个设备构成：飞行数据记录仪(FDR)和舱声录音器(CVR)。它们是商业飞机或公务机上的必备设备，通常安装在飞机尾部，这样更容易在飞机失事时保存下来。FDR记录飞行速度、高度、垂直加速度和燃油流量等数据。CVR不仅记录机组人员之间的对话以及他们与塔台的对话，还记录背景噪音，这些可为调查人员提供关键线索。
The "black box" is made up of two separate pieces of equipment: the flight data recorder (FDR) and a cockpit voice recorder (CVR). They are compulsory on any commercial flight or corporate jet, and are usually kept in the tail of an aircraft, where they are more likely to survive a crash. FDRs record things like airspeed, altitude, vertical acceleration and fuel flow. The CVRs track the crew's interactions with each other and air traffic control, but also background noise that can give vital clues to investigators.
--只保留2小时的驾驶舱对话
FDR足以保存25小时的飞行数据，但CVR只能保存两小时的驾驶舱声音记录，并循环录制，之前的录音将被覆盖。这意味着MH370在转变航线初期，即从马来西亚飞向越南途中的关键对话内容将会丢失。
The FDR has enough storage for 25 hours of flight data but CVR only has two hours of cockpit voice recording, which is recorded over itself in a loop. That means in the case of MH370 potentially crucial exchanges surrounding the initial diversion, which took place halfway between Malaysia and Vietnam, will probably have been recorded over.
--寻找黑匣子可能是"持久战"
黑匣子装有水下定位信标，一旦其感应器接触到水，就开始发射脉冲信号，每秒发射一次"ping"信号，在电池耗尽之前可持续发射30天。这意味着MH370的黑匣子将在4月7日左右停止发射信号。法航447航班失事坠入大西洋后，搜索人员花了两年才找到并打捞起黑匣子。
Black boxes are fitted with an underwater locator beacon that starts emitting a pulse if its sensor touches water. They can "ping" once a second for 30 days before the battery runs out; meaning MH370's black box is due to stop pinging around April 7. After Air France flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, it took search teams two years to find and raise the black boxes.
[海底打捞如何展开]
一旦确认碎片来源，并确定了准确的搜索范围，接下来的工作就是定位水下残骸。如果调查人员及时确定了搜索范围，就可以利用飞机的黑匣子声波定位仪来精确找到残骸。
Once debris is confirmed and a more accurate search area defined, the next challenge will be locating the underwater wreckage. If they hone in on the area quickly enough, investigators could use the plane's black box pinger to pinpoint the wreckage.
如果在残骸找到前，黑匣子已停止发送信号，那么调查人员还可以使用水下自动潜航器(AUV)来搜索海底，但这将是一个极费力的过程。
After the pinger is no longer functional, if the wreckage still hasn't been found, investigators could use an automated underwater vehicle (AUV) to map the ocean floor instead. It would be a painstaking process.
最后，一旦搜救队找到了残骸所在点，就可以使用遥控潜水器(ROV)打捞黑匣子和飞机其他部件。
Finally, once the recovery team has honed in on where the wreckage lies, a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) could then be used to try to recover the black box and other pieces of the plane.
所有这些设备搜索和找到残骸的过程可能花费数周，打捞上来更是需要数月时间。
It could take weeks to get the equipment needed to search the area and find the submerged wreckage, only to take months more trying to recover it.
内容来源：Chinadaily双语手机报（回复“免费体验”查看免费阅读30天使用方式）