Disaster in the Air Narrowly Avoided 差点发生的空中灾难

Disaster in the Air Narrowly Avoided

差点发生的空中灾难

【听力音频】

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　　By Mario Ritter, Jr

　　09 January 2024

　　Passengers are describing what happened when part of a passenger jet came off at the start of a flight from Portland, Oregon last Friday.

　　The incident resulted in no serious injuries, and the plane returned to Portland Airport soon after the dangerous incident. But had a few details been different, the flight could have ended in disaster.

　　Kelly Bartlett was one of the passengers on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland. She told The Associated Press (AP) that, at first, passengers did not know what was happening. "We didn't know if it meant we were going to crash," she said.

　　The incident happened six minutes into the flight from Portland to Southern California's Ontario International Airport. The jet, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, was traveling at about 640 kilometers an hour. It had reached an altitude of 4.8 kilometers. That detail is important. The plane was still far below its cruising altitude.

　　Flight attendants had just told the 171 passengers that they could again use their electronic devices. Then, a piece of the airplane body 61 centimeters by 122 centimeters behind the left wing blew out.

　　The piece called a door plug, was meant to be a cover over an emergency exit that was not used on that MAX 9 version of the airplane. The cover permits extra seats to be put where an emergency exit would be. Air safety rules require airliners to have enough exits to permit all passengers and crew to get out of the aircraft in 90 seconds.

　　The AP noted, as fate would have it, nobody was sitting in the two seats next to the blown-out hole.

　　Emergency oxygen masks dropped immediately. At the same time, wind rushed into the cabin making it difficult for the flight attendants to walk or hear. But they moved toward the hole and began moving passengers away from the dangerous area. The sound made communication difficult.

　　The force from the loss of pressure in the cabin was strong enough to tear the shirt off the body of a teenager sitting nearby.

　　His seatbelt "kept him in his seat and saved his life," Bartlett said. Flight attendants moved the young person next to Bartlett. She asked him if he was hurt. He said he was OK and thanked her for her kindness.

　　The pilots and the flight attendants have not made public statements and their names have not been released. However, they spoke to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators. They said they followed their training. The pilots' goal was to get the plane back to Portland quickly. The flight attendants worked to keep the passengers safe and calm.

　　NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the actions of the flight crew were "incredible." Bartlett also praised the crew. She said she felt like the situation was under control.

　　The pilots used an emergency handbook next to the captain's seat. The co-pilot contacted air traffic controllers declaring an emergency and the need to descend to 3,000 meters. The lower altitude would give passengers more oxygen to breathe.

　　Homendy said the attention of the flight attendants immediately turned to five children who were traveling without adult supervision and two babies being carried by their parents.

　　Evan Granger was sitting close to the hole in the plane. He told NBC News, "There were so many things that had to go right in order for all of us to survive."

　　Homendy said that if the blowout had happened just a few minutes later when the plane would have reached its cruising height, the incident might have been a tragedy.

　　NTSB agents recovered the door plug that blew out, finding it completely intact. Many other things that flew out of the airplane were also recovered including a cellphone that was still working.

　　Now the agency will investigate why the cover over the unused exit hole came off.

　　The incident happened days after a Japan Airlines Airbus 350 struck a coast guard plane on a runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport and caught fire on January 3.

　　In that incident, four on the coast guard plane died. But 379 passengers and the crew of the airliner safely got out of the passenger plane before it burned up. However, reports say getting everyone out of the plane took about 18 minutes.

　　I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

　　Terry Spencer and Claire Rush reported this story for the Associated Press. Mario Ritter, Jr. adapted this report for VOA Learning English with other sources from AP and Reuters.

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　　作者：马里奥·里特尔，Jr

　　2024年1月9日

　　乘客们正在描述上周五从俄勒冈州波特兰起飞的一架客机在起飞初期部分脱落的情况。

　　这次事件没有造成严重伤害，飞机在危险事件发生后不久就返回了波特兰机场。但是，如果有几个细节不同，这次飞行可能会以灾难告终。

　　凯利·巴特利特是阿拉斯加航空公司从波特兰出发的1282航班的乘客之一。她告诉美联社（AP），起初，乘客们不知道发生了什么。她说：“我们不知道这是否意味着我们要坠机。”

　　这起事件发生在从波特兰飞往南加州安大略国际机场的航班起飞后六分钟。这架波音737 MAX 9喷气式飞机当时的速度约为每小时640公里。它已经达到了4.8公里的高度。这个细节很重要。飞机仍然远低于其巡航高度。

　　空乘人员刚刚告诉171名乘客他们可以再次使用电子设备。然后，飞机左翼后方61厘米乘122厘米的一块飞机机身部分被吹飞。

　　这个被称为门塞的部分，本应覆盖在那架MAX 9版本飞机上未使用的紧急出口上。这个覆盖物允许在紧急出口的位置增加额外的座位。航空安全规定要求航空公司必须有足够的出口，以便所有乘客和机组人员在90秒内离开飞机。

　　美联社指出，命运的安排是，没有人坐在被吹飞的洞旁边的两个座位上。

　　紧急氧气面罩立即掉落。与此同时，风冲入机舱，使空乘人员难以行走或听见。但他们向洞口移动，并开始将乘客从危险区域转移出去。噪音使得沟通变得困难。

　　机舱内压力的丧失产生的力量足以将坐在附近的一个青少年的衬衫从身上撕下。

　　巴特利特说，他的安全带“让他留在座位上，救了他的命。”空乘人员将这个年轻人移到了巴特利特旁边。她问他是否受伤。他说他没事，并感谢她的善意。

　　飞行员和空乘人员没有发表公开声明，他们的名字也没有被公开。然而，他们向国家交通安全委员会（NTSB）的调查员们发表了讲话。他们说他们遵循了他们的训练。飞行员的目标是尽快将飞机带回波特兰。空乘人员努力保持乘客的安全和平静。

　　NTSB主席詹妮弗·霍门迪说，飞行员的行动“令人难以置信”。巴特利特也赞扬了机组人员。她说她感觉情况已经得到了控制。

　　飞行员使用了驾驶员座位旁的紧急手册。副驾驶联系了空中交通控制员，宣布了紧急情况并需要下降到3000米的高度。较低的高度会让乘客有更多的氧气可以呼吸。

　　霍门迪说，空乘人员的注意力立即转向了五个没有成年人陪伴的孩子和两个被父母抱着的婴儿。

　　埃文·格兰杰坐在飞机上的洞附近。他告诉NBC新闻，“为了我们所有人的生存，有很多事情必须做得恰到好处。”

　　霍门迪说，如果飞机在几分钟后达到巡航高度时发生了爆炸，这次事件可能会变成一场悲剧。

　　NTSB的代理人找到了被吹飞的门塞，发现它完好无损。飞机上飞出的许多其他物品也被找回，包括一个仍然可以使用的手机。

　　现在，该机构将调查未使用的出口孔上的盖子为何会脱落。

　　这起事件发生在日本航空公司的一架空客350在东京羽田机场的跑道上撞上一架海岸警卫队飞机并在1月3日起火的几天后。

　　在那次事件中，海岸警卫队飞机上的四人死亡。但是，客机上的379名乘客和机组人员在飞机烧毁之前安全地离开了客机。然而，报道称，让所有人离开飞机大约花了18分钟。

　　我是马里奥·里特尔，Jr。

　　特里·斯宾塞和克莱尔·拉什为美联社报道了这个故事。马里奥·里特尔，Jr.使用来自美联社和路透社的其他来源，为美国之音学习英语改编了这篇报道。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　altitude –n.某物体相对于海平面的高度

　　exit –n. 建筑物或车辆的出口门

　　as fate would have it –idiom用来表达某件事情发生是超出人类解释的

　　oxygen mask –(industry)大型飞机上的一种紧急设备，如果机舱内的气压过低会弹出

　　cabin –n. （在航空中）飞机的内部

　　seatbelt –n. 一种旨在防止在碰撞中受伤的薄材料

　　intact –adj. 完整且一体的，未破损或损坏的