Mistrust between U.S. and Malaysian air-accident investigators has hampered a multinational probe into the jetliner that went missing three weeks ago, people familiar with the investigation said, with no clear leads emerging about who or what was responsible for its disappearance.
hamper：妨碍，束缚
jetliner：喷气客机
As search ships
raced to try to confirm airborne sightings of potential wreckage in the newest
search area, officially both sides said cooperation between the two countries is
good. But people familiar with both countries‘ efforts say that isn‘t always the
case.
wreckage：残骸
U.S. investigators say they aren‘t getting a
full flow of information from the Malaysians - - prompting some to complain to
headquarters in Washington that they feel relegated to the margins, according to
several people familiar with the matter. Malaysian investigators, meanwhile, are
wary of information leaks they believe are occurring more regularly among their
counterparts from Washington.
relegate：归入，提交
wary of：警觉的，小心翼翼的
With a little more than a week left on the battery
life of Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.38% Flight 370‘s data recorders, known as
black boxes, search crews were on their way to the new search zone where five
planes had spotted debris potentially related to the plane. Though investigators
have determined the Boeing BA +1.01% 777 went down somewhere in the Indian
Ocean, based on satellite data, a criminal probe into the flight‘s disappearance
has yielded few clues in the two weeks since the Malaysian government announced
its suspicion that a deliberate act brought down the Boeing 777.
debris：碎片，残骸
Twin probes
into how and why the plane went down rest largely in the hands of Malaysian
police and air-safety officials, and Americans working in Kuala Lumpur are
convinced their side is ‘mainly getting bits and pieces, rather than a full
download from the Malaysians,‘ said one U.S. official briefed on the
investigation. Members of the on-site U.S. contingent are ‘vetting all the
information they do get, to ensure accuracy,‘ the official
added.
In Malaysia, the government has tight control over
the media and leaks of information aren‘t common. By contrast, some people on
the Malaysian side perceive Washington to be full of leaks, particularly in the
first few days after the plane vanished March 8.
Last week,
Malaysia handed over its most important physical evidence to the U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation - -pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah‘s home flight simulator and
computer- -for analysis. But before the FBI analysis was complete or the
Malaysian government had a chance to make an announcement, a flurry of media
reports from Washington revealed that the bureau hadn‘t found anything to
explain Flight 370‘s disappearance.
‘Washington seems to be
a leaky boat,‘ said one person familiar with the Malaysian investigation. ‘It
erodes trust.‘ Nevertheless, this person said concern about the Americans‘ role
isn‘t seriously impeding the investigation. ‘We have been surprised at how many
people we have been able to rope into this,‘ this person
said.
Still, according to people familiar with the matter,
U.S. aviation officials are operating largely out of the U.S. Embassy in Kuala
Lumpur and shuttling to meetings with Malaysian officials- -instead of being
based full-time in Malaysian offices alongside local investigators, as would
often be the case. The U.S. team includes a handful of investigators from the
FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.
The embassy
declined to comment on the level of cooperation between the two
countries.
Malaysian authorities take pride in having
assembled a broad multinational coalition to search the Indian Ocean for the
wreckage of the Boeing 777, and in the process ceded some of their authority to
direct the hunt. The government has repeatedly sought outside help to locate and
eventually try to retrieve remnants of the plane carrying 239 people, asking for
everything from satellite imagery to search planes to specialized underwater
recovery equipment.
‘On the criminal aspect of the
investigation, Malaysian police are working very closely with the international
agencies,‘ Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters
Friday.
But investigators from the Federal Aviation
Administration and Boeing Co. focusing on aircraft performance and systems have
expressed concern about poor coordination and information flow, according to
people familiar with the matter.
Boeing, without the full
involvement of Malaysian investigators, has run some computer models of the last
phase of the flight, highlighting another point of tension in the probe, two
people familiar with the matter said. These so-called engineering simulations
seek to lay out the most likely movements of the plane before and after it is
presumed to have run out of fuel. Such work typically would be more closely
coordinated with leaders of the overall investigations, according to these
people.
Boeing on Friday re-emphasized that it continues to
serve as a technical adviser to the NTSB.
An FAA spokeswoman
said the agency‘s ‘working relationship with the Malaysian Directorate General
of Civil Aviation has been strong for many years and has continued to be strong
throughout the investigation.‘
The current tensions between
U.S. and Malaysian investigators have roots in issues that appeared three weeks
ago, people familiar the matter said, soon after the flight dropped off civilian
radar March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
From
the beginning, according to a U.S. government official and others, Boeing was
upset that it took about three hours- -much longer than would be typical- -for
Malaysian authorities to inform company representatives the jet hadn‘t been
heard from.
Boeing‘s team remains ‘quite frustrated and
doesn‘t trust the process,‘ according to one person familiar with the company‘s
views.
FAA and NTSB officials didn‘t play a prominent role
in briefing Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak just before his somber
announcement Monday that Flight 370 ‘ended in the southern Indian Ocean.‘ The
analysis was based primarily on work done by satellite-operator Inmarsat ISAT.LN
+0.07% PLC and the U.K.‘s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, the NTSB‘s British
counterpart. Officials in Kuala Lumpur and the AAIB have a long-standing
relationship on safety matters.
‘The Malaysians have a much
closer association with the AAIB‘ than with the NTSB, according to one person
familiar with Malaysia Airlines‘ operations. ‘There is simply a greater comfort
level there.‘
NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said ‘there is
no friction between the U.S. and Malaysian investigators,‘ adding ‘they are all
working together, with one common goal.‘
friction：摩擦
Malaysian
authorities say that background checks have been completed on all passengers by
their countries of origin and that no one stands out as a suspect. At the same
time, Malaysian and U.S. officials also say they haven‘t ruled out any potential
cause for the plane‘s disappearance, including the possibility that a passenger
was involved.
Most of the 14 countries with passengers on
the plane haven‘t disclosed how they conducted the background checks or what
guidelines they followed in clearing passengers. Chinese officials didn‘t
respond to requests for comment how it conducted its background checks on the
153 Chinese citizens on board. Malaysia, too, hasn‘t provided details other than
to say it focused on possible terrorism, sabotage and personal or psychological
issues.
Indonesia said it relied on international guidelines
in clearing all of its seven passengers, but didn‘t say who wrote the
guidelines. ‘We don‘t use our own standard,‘ said police spokesman Agus
Rikwanto. ‘We use the standard used internationally that is used in
investigating any suspicious individual. The results are they are
cleared.‘
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原文：http://www.cnblogs.com/yingying0907/p/3633950.html