VOA标准英语2009年-Investigators Arrive on Scene of Buffalo, NY Pl

Aviation investigators¹ have arrived in the town of Clarence Center, in western New York State, to sift² through the wreckage³ of a commuter⁴ plane that crashed into a house late Thursday evening, bursting into flames and killing⁵ all 49 persons aboard and one on the ground.
　
Inivestigator arrives at scene of plane crash in Clarence Center, New York, just north and east of Buffalo⁶, 13 Feb 2009

The wreckage of Continental⁷ Airlines flight 3407 continued to smolder⁸ Friday morning; only the aircraft's tail section remained recognizable.

The town's Emergency Control Director David Bissionette said a natural gas leak was fueling the extremely hot fire.

A team of 14 aviation investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board - or NTSB - began arriving early Friday. Spokesman Steve Chealander said they were searching the crash site for the plane's "black box" cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

"We have investigators on scene as we speak trying to get those recorders out," he said. "Our intent is to get them out of here this morning and back to Washington and start the analysis of them as quickly as we can. That has not been done yet, we are attempting to do it."

Flight 3407 was en route from Newark, New Jersey⁹ when it came down about nine kilometers from Buffalo Niagara International Airport. It was due to land there shortly after 10:00 p.m. Thursday evening (local time). There was a light snow and moderate winds in the area at the time.

The twin-engine plane struck a house in the residential¹⁰ community, destroying it and killing at least one person on the ground. Two others - a woman and a child - escaped with minor¹¹ injuries. Rescue workers immediately evacuated¹² residents from about a dozen nearby homes.

Initial reports said the pilots on Flight 3407 radioed the control tower that they were having problems. But County Executive Chris Collins said that did not appear to be the case.

"To the best of our knowledge it did not [report trouble]. It was coming in for a landing and the control tower stated that it lost contact with the plane," Collins said.

This is the second commercial plane crash in the state of New York in less than a month. In January, a US Airways¹³ passenger flight that had just taken off from a New York City airport ditched in the Hudson River after birds flew into its engines.

The aircraft's captain heroically landed that plane in the river and all the passengers survived.

1 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 sift   

v.筛撒，纷落，详察

参考例句：

• Sift out the wheat from the chaff.把小麦的壳筛出来。
• Sift sugar on top of the cake.在蛋糕上面撒上糖。

3 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

4 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

5 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

6 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

7 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

8 smolder   

v.无火焰地闷烧；n.焖烧，文火

参考例句：

• The smolder will soon be a flame.闷火很快变为烈焰。
• It can smolder undetected for hours,then suddenly explode in fiery destruction.也有可能好几小时内不被发觉，突然激烈的爆炸。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

11 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

12 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

13 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。