搜尋人員再度探測到黑匣子信號

Search crews have regained contact with underwater pings consistent with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's 'black boxes,' increasing the chances that they have located the missing jet.

搜尋人員再次探測到上週末發現的與馬來西亞航空(Malaysia Airlines) 370航班黑匣子頻率一致的水下脈衝信號，令定位這架失聯航班的希望增大。

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is leading the multinational search in the southern Indian Ocean, said Wednesday they have now detected signals on four separate occasions in the same area. The latest signals were weaker than the initial pings detected over the weekend, suggesting the jet's flight recorders were close to running out of batteries, he said.

領導印度洋南部多國搜尋行動的澳大利亞空軍上將休斯敦(Angus Houston)週三表示，他們已在同一片海域四次探測到脈衝信號。他說，最新探測到的信號比周末最初探測到的信號要弱，這說明飛機黑匣子的電池即將耗盡。

The signals, picked up twice on Tuesday, were held for five and seven minutes, respectively: much shorter than an initial two hour transmission on Saturday. Still, officials are increasingly confident they are narrowing in on the spot where investigators believe the jet ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean after vanishing on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

這些信號在當地時間週二被探測到兩次，分別持續了5分鐘和7分鐘，明顯弱於上週六最初探測到的信號，當時持續了兩個小時。但官員們仍越來越相信搜索範圍正在縮小，正在靠近調查人員所推斷的飛機耗盡燃油後墜海的地點。馬航370航班在3月8日從吉隆坡飛往北京的途中失蹤。

An analysis of the initial signals found that they were consistent with the kind of electronic pings that would be emitted by locator beacons attached to the jet's flight recorders, Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

澳大利亞空軍上將休斯敦說，最初探測到的信號的分析顯示，它們與失聯飛機兩個黑匣子上的定位信標發出的電子信號頻率一致。

'It's nothing natural, it comes from a man-made device, and it's consistent with the locator on a black box,' the former Australian defense force chief said. 'I am now optimistic that we will find the aircraft or what is left of the aircraft in the not too distant future.'

這位澳大利亞前國防軍司令說，探測到的信號並非自然信號，而是來自人造設備，並且與黑匣子上的定位器信號一致。他說，他現在樂觀地認爲，將在不遠的將來找到飛機或者飛機殘骸。

But he added that search crews still needed hard evidence, such as a photograph of the wreckage, before declaring the final resting place of Flight 370. Officials also cautioned that deep water currents and silt on the seabed could slow the discovery of any plane wreckage.

但他補充說，搜尋人員仍然需要確鑿的證據，比如飛機殘骸的照片，然後才能宣佈370航班最終所在位置。官員們警告說，深海洋流和海底淤泥可能阻礙飛機殘骸的尋找工作。

The Australian naval ship Ocean Shield has been sweeping a 7-mile strip of the southern Indian Ocean since April 4. It is towing a U.S. Navy device nearly 2 miles beneath the ocean surface, listening for sounds from the black boxes. Other vessels, including the Chinese ship Haixun 01, are also doing an underwater search of an area farther south. Air Chief Marshal Houston said Haixun 01 hadn't detected any new signals since late last week.

澳大利亞軍艦“海盾號”(Ocean Shield)自4月4日以來一直在南印度洋一條7英里（約合11公里）長的地帶進行搜索。該艦拖着一個在水下近2英里（約合3公里）處工作的美國海軍(U.S. Navy)設備，探測黑匣子緊急定位信標所發出的信號。包括中國“海巡01號”在內的其他艦船也在更南的區域進行水下搜尋。休斯敦說，“海巡01號”自上週晚些時後以來就沒有探測到新的信號。

Beacons on the two flight recorders aboard the plane have an estimated battery life of about 30 days before they stop emitting signals. It has been longer than that since the plane disappeared from civilian radar with 239 people on board. Authorities said Wednesday the latest pings appeared to have come from a single source, suggesting one of the beacons may have fallen silent.

這兩個黑匣子的定位信標的電池壽命大概有30天，電量用盡後將不再發出信號。自這架搭載着239人從吉隆坡飛往北京的飛機在3月8日失聯以來已經過去超過30天。有關部門週三表示，最新的脈衝信號似乎是同一來源，這意味着其中一個定位信標可能已經陷入沉寂。

Unless search crews can pinpoint a more precise location for the signals--which are currently up to 25 kilometers apart--undersea vehicles hunting for plane wreckage on the ocean floor would need to cover a zone of about 1,300 square kilometers (502 square miles), according to the U.S. Navy, which is coordinating the underwater search. The submersibles travel at walking pace, meaning it could be weeks rather than days before any debris is found.

協助進行海底搜尋的美國海軍稱，除非搜尋人員能夠更準確地定位信號（目前最遠間隔25公里），否則在海底搜尋飛機殘骸的潛水器就需要搜尋大約1,300平方公里的面積。潛水器前進速度與步行速度相當，這意味着可能要花費數週、而非數日才能找到殘骸。

'The more effort we put into location of where the transmission is coming from, the more certainty we will have that we will find something on the bottom of the ocean,' Air Chief Marshal Houston said. 'The batteries of both devices are past their use by date and they will very shortly fail. I think we are very fortunate in fact to get some transmissions on day 33.'

休斯敦說，爲定位信號發射位置所做的努力越多，他們就越發確定將在海底有所發現。他說，兩個設備的電池都已經超期，電量很快將耗盡。他認爲在飛機失聯33天的時候收到一些信號實際上已經十分幸運。

To avoid interfering with the delicate search for signals, authorities said Wednesday they are holding back on deploying any other ships or underwater vehicles. Still, they dropped several sonar buoys which can hear at depths of 1,000 feet to help narrow the search zone further. Choosing to deploy the Bluefin-21, a torpedo-shaped submersible drone currently strapped to the Ocean Shield's deck, would mark another switch in the search, effectively signaling an end to hopes of more signals from the black boxes.

有關部門週三表示，爲了不干擾細緻的信號搜尋工作，他們仍然沒有向搜索區安排任何其他船隻或水下設備。不過，他們投放了多個聲納浮標，以便幫助進一步縮小搜索範圍。這些聲吶浮標能夠在水下1,000英尺（約300米）深的地方偵聽信號。如果選擇部署藍鰭-21 (Bluefin-21)，則將意味着搜尋工作的又一轉變，實際上意味着黑匣子沒有什麼希望進一步發出信號。藍鰭-21這個無人潛航器目前綁在海盾號的甲板上。

'I would imagine it's not far away before we deploy something to go down and have a look,' Air Chief Marshal Houston said, referring to the underwater vehicles.

空軍上將休斯頓說，他認爲這或許意味着距離投放水下工具進行搜索不遠了。

Complicating the effort, the area of ocean where the signals were detected is some 2.8 miles deep. Those depths are at the absolute limit of the Bluefin, which might mean that crews would have to use other submersibles or drop cameras to the ocean floor to investigate.

探測到信號的海域水深大約2.8英里（合4.5公里），這讓搜索行動變得複雜。這樣的深度是藍鰭-21工作的絕對極限，這可能意味着工作人員將不得不使用其他潛水裝置或把攝像機放入海底來展開調查。

Authorities think the seabed is covered with a thick carpet of silt that might be distorting the signals and could also handicap any undersea vehicles sent to look for plane wreckage using sonar initially and later video cameras. The silt also may hide debris from Flight 370 that likely scattered over a wide area as it sank to the ocean floor, they said.

有關部門認爲，海牀被厚厚的淤泥覆蓋，這可能扭曲了信號，並有可能給任何水下設備的工作造成困難。這些設備最初將使用聲納，隨後將利用攝像機搜索飛機殘骸。官員們說，淤泥還可能掩蓋了370航班的殘骸。在飛機沉入海底時，殘骸可能分散在一個很寬廣的區域內。

The two-year underwater hunt for the black boxes of Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, provides some sobering lessons in the search for Flight 370. The ocean floor in the Air France crash was nearly 2.5 miles deep, with forbidding peaks and valleys. It took small robotic submarines provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution nearly 60 trips under the surface before the black boxes were discovered.

此前，在水下搜索法國航空(Air France) 447航班黑匣子的工作持續了兩年，當時的搜索工作可以爲370航班的搜索提供一些經驗。法國航空447航班2009年在大西洋墜毀。上述法航航班墜毀地點的海底深度爲2.5英里（合4公里），海底地形複雜多變。伍茲霍爾海洋研究所(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)提供的小型機器人潛艇執行了近60次水下任務才找到黑匣子。