美国国家公共电台 NPR High In Bolivian Mountains, 2 Massachusetts Men Pursue Mystery Of Flight 980

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST: 

Two roommates from Massachusetts recently set out to solve the mystery of a plane crash that took place in South America more than 30 years ago. As Craig LeMoult of member station WGBH reports, they found a grim reminder¹ of the tragedy that may or may not provide answers about what happened.

CRAIG LEMOULT, BYLINE²: It all started with some curiosity and a Google search. That's what led Dan Futrell to Eastern Airlines Flight 980, which flew into a Bolivian mountain on New Year's Day in 1985.

DAN FUTRELL: The highest recorded commercial plane crash, as far as we know in the history of aviation, at 19,600 feet in 1985.

LEMOULT: Twenty-nine passengers died, including eight Americans. Several expeditions had made it to the crash site, but none found the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder. One mission by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board failed when the searchers all got altitude sickness. But Futrell thought finding those black boxes must be possible.

FUTRELL: Maybe hard for sure but not impossible, so that sounded like a good adventure to me.

LEMOULT: Futrell served two tours with the Army in Iraq, and now that he's working a desk job, this seemed like just the thing to restore a little excitement in his life. He managed to rope his roommate, Isaac Stoner, into the plan.

ISAAC STONER: I seem to have found a role as something of an enabler for Dan.

LEMOULT: The two started planning. They acclimatized themselves for the extreme altitude by taking turns sleeping in a rented tent in their basement that gradually lowered the oxygen level. They arranged for a guide and a cook. And five months later, they found themselves hiking up Mount Illimani in Bolivia. Outside Magazine reporter Peter Frick-Wright went with them and recorded them for a podcast. After a brutally³ steep and exhausting ascent⁴, they started to find parts of the plane.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STONER: Oh, that's the CO2 canister from a life jacket.

FUTRELL: Yeah.

LEMOULT: It had all probably been encased in ice for decades, but warm conditions over the last year brought it out. And the ice preserved more than just plane parts.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FUTRELL: That right there, that's a hip⁵ bone.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken).

FUTRELL: Top of the femur.

STONER: Oh, my God.

We had definitely planned for this, but it was a moment. It was like, wow, this is real. What would the families want? What's the right thing to do?

LEMOULT: They decided⁶ it was best to dig a grave. It's still not clear why none of the earlier expeditions reported finding any body parts, although they may have just been buried in snow and ice. There was speculation⁷ an explosion on the flight had caused the passengers to be sucked out of the plane before it hit the mountain. At the least, this grim discovery, and many more after that, seemed to put that theory to rest. And then...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STONER: Yeah, just got a roll of magnetic tape.

FUTRELL: Seriously?

STONER: Seriously.

LEMOULT: Black magnetic tape like you'd find in a video cassette.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FUTRELL: It's either from one of the black boxes or it has a great 1985 movie for in-flight viewing.

LEMOULT: Despite their name, black boxes are actually orange, and on the third day of searching, Stoner picked up a piece of orange metal and noticed wires coming out of it had lettering on them.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Wow, dude.

FUTRELL: Where do you see that?

STONER: Right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MEN: Cockpit voice recorder.

FUTRELL: Right there.

LEMOULT: They'd found it. It was demolished⁸, but maybe that meant the magnetic tape did come from inside of it.

FUTRELL: This is the spool⁹ right here.

LEMOULT: Now, Futrell and Stoner are back in their apartment in Somerville, Mass.

STONER: So we have a cardboard box full of orange scrap¹⁰ metal pieces that are clearly very, very damaged.

LEMOULT: When they got back, it turned out the NTSB couldn't look at what they found without a request from the Bolivians. So Futrell and Stoner spent five months making calls and sending letters before they managed to break through all that bureaucracy. Along the way, they heard from several family members of those lost on Flight 980 who have been demanding official answers for decades. And here two guys with a strong sense of curiosity and some energy to spare had managed to answer at least some of their questions themselves.

FUTRELL: And a lot of these family members just said thanks for doing this, you know. Sure, you guys don't have a personal connection here, but you cared enough to go.

LEMOULT: Now, as they wait for the analysis of the tape, they're just hoping there's something in there that will finally help determine what happened on that flight nearly 32 years ago. For NPR News, I'm Craig LeMoult in Boston.

(SOUNDBITE OF MATTHEW SALTZ & RYAN HELSING'S "CASCADE")

1 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

4 ascent   

n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高

参考例句：

• His rapid ascent in the social scale was surprising.他的社会地位提高之迅速令人吃惊。
• Burke pushed the button and the elevator began its slow ascent.伯克按动电钮，电梯开始缓慢上升。

5 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

8 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。

9 spool   

n.（缠录音带等的）卷盘（轴）；v.把…绕在卷轴上

参考例句：

• Can you wind this film back on to its spool?你能把这胶卷卷回到卷轴上去吗？
• Thomas squatted on the forward deck,whistling tunelessly,polishing the broze spool of the anchor winch.托马斯蹲在前甲板上擦起锚绞车的黄铜轴，边擦边胡乱吹着口哨。

10 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。