美国国家公共电台 NPR Crash Victim's Family Pushes To Keep Boeing 737 Max From Flying Again Too Soon

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Boeing says it hopes to have the 737 Max jet back in service by the end of this year. That model was involved in two crashes in the past 12 months, one off the coast of Indonesia, one in Ethiopia. Three hundred and forty-six people died. And regulators grounded the plane for an investigation¹. Now the families of the plane crash victims are trying to keep it grounded. NPR's Jim Zarroli has the story.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE²: Michael Stumo wears an Orthodox Christian³ cross made in Ethiopia to remember his daughter Samya.

MICHAEL STUMO: She was light. She was beautiful. She was intellectual. She had great judgment⁴. She was a leader. She was always bringing us together. She was always connecting, reaching out.

ZARROLI: Samya Stumo was 24. And she'd just taken a job at a development organization. She texted her family in Massachusetts to say she'd gotten on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. That night, they learned the plane she was on had crashed.

STUMO: And we knew there was a crash. We didn't know there was no survivors⁵. And so we decided⁶, we have to get there. She might be injured in a field. We got in our car and started driving to JFK to find a plane. And on the way down at some point, we heard there were no survivors.

ZARROLI: The Stumos had lost another child to cancer years before. Samya's death left them numb⁷ with grief, Stumo says, struggling to cope with the fact that their family had become smaller. Then in April, they read that the plane could be back in the air by fall. And that stirred them into action.

STUMO: We're traumatized. We don't want to be doing this, but we want to avoid a third crash. If someone had been more active after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia, maybe this crash wouldn't have happened.

ZARROLI: The Stumos have joined dozens of families suing Boeing. These families have become a driving force in the effort to keep the plane from flying too soon. The families say the plane shouldn't fly until questions about its safety are answered. Lead attorney Robert Clifford points out that the 737 Max has been dramatically redesigned since it started flying 50 years ago.

ROBERT CLIFFORD: We're talking about Kitty Hawk⁸ versus⁹ going to the moon in terms of all the technologies and issues of flight safety. The 737 of today - it looks nothing like and is nothing like the 737 of old.

ZARROLI: The controversy¹⁰ over the plane has intensified¹¹ lately. Messages released last week indicate that a top pilot at Boeing had warned two years before the crashes that the plane was difficult to control in flight simulation. The families want to complete recertification of the 737 Max. Recertification is a kind of soup-to-nuts examination of the plane's design. Such a move would be a financial disaster for Boeing. The 737 Max is Boeing's best-selling plane. And the longer it's grounded, the more market share Boeing loses. Peter Goelz is a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board.

PETER GOELZ: It is a very expensive decision. And it adds hundreds of millions of dollars and years to the process. And so it's not a decision that's made lightly.

ZARROLI: For that reason, a complete recertification is considered unlikely. Aviation consultant¹² Richard Aboulafia (ph) says it's also not clear it's necessary. The crashes occurred after a redesign of the plane's autopilot system. These changes could force the plane's nose down in rare situations, confusing the crew.

RICHARD ABOULAFIA: The mistakes are pretty clear. In other words, I don't see how this is at all a dangerous plane once those changes are made.

ZARROLI: For its part Boeing said in a statement that it continues to collaborate¹³ with regulators on the process they've laid out for certifying¹⁴ the plane's software and safely returning the 737 Max to service. Stumo says there needs to be accountability for what happened.

STUMO: They should have people that made the decisions that killed my daughter - they should no longer make those decisions both at FAA and Boeing. The people that made the decisions that ended up causing these crashes - they're still there.

ZARROLI: The families also want to see a memorial to the victims erected¹⁵ in the remote part of Ethiopia where the plane crashed. But the real memorial, they say, needs to be permanent changes in airline safety to make sure the 737 Max doesn't crash again. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.

1 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

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 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

5 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

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 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

8 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

9 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

10 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

11 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

13 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

14 certifying   

（尤指书面）证明( certify的现在分词 )； 发证书给…； 证明（某人）患有精神病； 颁发（或授予）专业合格证书

参考例句：

• Signed Commercial in quintuplicate, certifying merchandise to be of Chinese origin. 签署商业发票一式五份，证明产品的原产地为中国。
• Other documents certifying the truthfulness of the contents of the advertisements. （三）确认广告内容真实性的其他证明文件。

15 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。