Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, lost contact
early Saturday with the airline shortly into the flight from Kuala Lumpur to
Beijing. Government and airline officials said they weren‘t ready to speculate
about what caused the Boeing 777-200 to disappear from radar. Here are five
things to know about the flight and air safety.
#1:
What happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370?
With
239 people aboard, the plane lost contact with air-traffic controllers shortly
into the flight early Saturday. Cruising at roughly 35,000 feet, the plane was
about a third of the way into its trip and traversing the South China Sea when
Malaysian controllers lost touch and the pilots failed to report to Vietnamese
controllers along their anticipated path, according to data provided by the
carrier and authorities from both countries.
cruising：巡航
anticipated：预期的，期望的
#2: Has anything like this happened
before?
Air-safety experts have likened the sudden
loss of contact and some other elements to the 2009 crash of an Air France jet
into the Atlantic Ocean en route from Brazil to France; all 228 people on board
were killed. The pilots on that plane also failed to issue any emergency calls
and the wreckage wasn‘t recovered until two years later, demonstrating the
challenge of search and rescue operations.
wreckage：残骸
#3:
Why is it so difficult to locate lost planes?
Today‘s
airliners have sturdy emergency-locator devices designed to transmit signals in
the event of a crash, as do so-called ‘black boxes‘ that contain digital flight
data and cockpit recordings. But without knowing the trajectory of a plane as it
went down--or fully understanding wind and wave conditions if it crashed into
water--searchers sometimes can end up crisscrossing huge areas looking for
relatively small pieces of wreckage. Particularly deep water or rugged terrain
can seriously hinder investigations.
cockpit：驾驶员座舱
rugged terrain：崎岖地带
#4: What technology do
airlines use to track flights?
Carriers typically have
dispatchers and operational-control centers tracking aircraft, often
communicating with pilots via data links or even voice communications over
satellite connections. In the event of a major mechanical problem or other
onboard events that don‘t immediately require an emergency landing , cockpit
crews can call on those experts for advice. On many planes, certain maintenance
and operational data are automatically transmitted to ground
facilities.
#5: What‘s the safety record of the
777?
The long-range Boeing 777 has had an exceptional
safety record since entering service in May 1995. Malaysia Airlines was an early
operator of an extended-range version and got its first in May 1997. There have
been only two earlier 777 incidents during a flight that resulted in the loss of
the aircraft. The first was in January 2008 when British Airways Flight 38
suffered icing inside its fuel lines after a long midwinter flight from Beijing
crash-landed just short of London‘s Heathrow Airport, injuring 47. The second
was Asiana Airlines Flight 214, which struck a sea wall on final approach to San
Francisco International Airport in July 2013; three passengers were
killed.
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原文：http://www.cnblogs.com/yingying0907/p/3591280.html