坐飞机为何需关闭电子设备

2012-03-19 00:00:00来源：21英语网

It happens on just about every flight now, say flight attendants. The plane's door closes and it's time to turn off personal electronic devices. And there's always at least one person who keeps talking, texting, tweeting, playing, watching or emailing─and ignoring stern orders to power down.
空乘人员说，现在几乎每趟航班上都有这样的情况发生：机舱门关闭后，提醒乘客请将个人电子设备关闭的提示音响起，但总有至少一个人还在那里打电话、发短信、用推特、玩游戏、发邮件或是上网看什么东西，完全无视要求关闭电子设备的严肃指令。
On rare occasions, a confrontation erupts, such as actor Alec Baldwin's widely reported removal from an American Airlines plane in December. Although airlines say they don't keep track or won't disclose how many passengers get bounced off planes for refusing to switch off devices, flight attendants say it's now the No. 1 spark for unruly behavior.
少数情况下还会发生冲突，演员鲍德温(Alec Baldwin)去年12月就因拒绝空乘人员提出的关闭手机要求而被请下美国航空公司(American Airlines)的飞机，此事后来被广泛报道。据空乘人员称，尽管航空公司说他们不会记录或公开有多少乘客因拒绝关闭电子设备而被赶下飞机，但这个原因目前已成为飞机上引发争执的头号导火索。
'People have become so wedded to these devices, and a lot of people really question whether they need to turn them off,' says Southwest Airlines flight attendant Thom McDaniel.
运输工人工会(Transport Workers Union)美国西南航空公司(Southwest Airlines)空乘人员分会会长麦克丹尼尔(Thom McDaniel)说，人们已经变得非常依赖这些设备，因此许多人对是否真有必要关闭这些设备提出了质疑。
Travelers who 'think 'it's no big deal' or 'the rule doesn't apply to me'─those are the hardest,' says Kelly Skyles, an American Airlines flight attendant. 'Most passenger misconduct cases now deal with noncompliance with electronic devices.'
美国航空公司空乘人员斯凯尔斯(Kelly Skyles)说，那些认为“没什么大不了”或“这条规则不适用于我”的乘客是最难应付的。现在大部分的乘客不端行为都和不愿配合关闭电子设备有关。
Airline rules backed by federal laws allow crews to turn a plane back to the gate and toss passengers off flights to prevent disputes in the air.
受美国联邦法支持的航空规则允许机组人员将飞机返回登机口并将乘客请下飞机，以免在空中发生争执。
In most cases, it isn't the initial issue that gets people kicked off planes, whether they've been told to pull up their saggy pants, clean up their language or stop playing 'Words With Friends' on their iPhones. Instead, it's the ensuing argument.
大多数情况下，机组人员不会一开始就将乘客赶下飞机，而是告知他们将松垮的裤子提上来，或者注意用语文明，或者停止用iPhone玩“填字游戏”(Words With Friends)等等。但接下来的争论往往导致事情升级。
Flight attendants at American reported 1,306 incidents of customer misconduct to their union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, in 2011, up slightly from 1,248 in 2010. Most didn't escalate into confrontations or get reported to law enforcement. The numbers have been going up for three years, with most of the increase related to electronic devices, flight attendants say. 2011年，美国空乘人员向他们的工会──美国职业空乘协会(Association of Professional Flight Attendants)──报告了1,306起乘客行为不当事件，稍高于2010年的1,248起。其中大部分事件并没有严重到发生冲突或是报告给执法部门的程度。空乘人员称，这个数字三年来一直都在增加，其中大部分的增长和电子设备有关。
Ms. Skyles, who is the APFA's safety and security coordinator, attributes attitudes toward electronics to 'speed limit' psychology─everyone knows there's a speed limit and yet every driver at one time or another will exceed it.
斯凯尔斯是美国职业空乘协会的安保协调员，她把乘客对电子设备的态度归结于“限速”心理──每个人都知道有最高车速限制，但每一名司机都至少有过一两次超速的经历。
Lots of passengers are skeptical of the danger of leaving devices on─one call or text message or game isn't going to bring down the plane, they figure. And who hasn't left on their BlackBerry and lived to tell?
许多乘客对飞机上开着电子设备的危险性持怀疑态度──他们认为一个电话、一条短信或是一个游戏不至于造成坠机。有谁将黑莓手机开着，就没能活得好好地走下飞机了呢？
Indeed, there's no firm scientific evidence that having gadgets powered up for takeoff and landing would cause a problem, only that there's the potential for a problem.
确实，并没有确凿的科学证据表明，在飞机起降时将这些小玩意开着会引起什么问题，只是说有引起问题的可能性存在。
The Federal Aviation Administration allows pilots to use iPads and other electronic devices to replace charts and manuals in the cockpit, powered up during takeoff and landing. But the FAA says it can't test all the different gadgets passengers may bring on board. The agency worries a multitude of devices could pose more danger than a single iPad for pilots.
美国联邦航空管理局(Federal Aviation Administration)允许飞行员在驾驶舱使用iPad和其它电子设备来代替纸质表格和手册，并且它们在起降时也处于开机状态。但是联邦航空管理局称，他们没法对乘客有可能带上飞机的各种形形色色的电子设备进行测试。相比飞行员仅有的一台iPad，管理局担心多台电子设备会带来更大的风险。