VOA标准英语20103--有关专家质疑韩国飞行员对技术太过依赖

 

Experts Concerned S. Korean Pilots Too Reliant on Technology 有关专家质疑韩国飞行员对技术太过依赖

WASHINGTON — Coming in too low on a sunny July day, Asiana Flight 214 broke apart after hitting a seawall on approach to the San Francisco airport.  The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. 

NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman told reporters Asiana 214 pilots reported they had the airport in sight and that they were cleared for the visual approach.

A visual approach means the pilot is expected to land manually - without the help of the Boeing 777’s advanced automation and ground radio beacons¹ that keep the jet on a glidepath to the runway.

Flying computers - that’s how aviation experts describe today’s sophisticated airplanes, which often require little hands-on flying.  But they say reliance on automation can lead to danger and confusion when pilots are forced to execute basic manual flying procedures.  Some experts call it “automation addiction².”

Captain Vic Hooper says he wasn’t surprised by the crash and that it could have happened anytime since 2000.  Hooper flew with Asiana, a South Korean airline, until 2011.  As a captain on the 777, the same type of plane that crashed, he found many co-pilots unable to fly a visual approach.

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“I was pushing an officer to fly a visual approach, which he didn’t want to do and I said, ‘You need the experience’ and he goes, ‘No, I don’t have to know how to do this.’  ‘Look I know you don’t think you have to do this, but let’s just try.  I’ll talk to you about it.’  He ended up leveling off too early.”

Captain Hooper took back the controls and landed the plane safely.  

The FAA has told VOA that it has temporarily banned foreign pilots from using visual approaches in San Francisco. FAA officials took this action after seeing an increase in aborted³ landings, or go-arounds, by foreign pilots attempting visual approaches, including one by Asiana less than two weeks after the crash. 

Also as a consequence of the crash, Asiana issued its own temporary ban - no first officers were to make any landings in the United States and Europe, and only in good conditions in South Korea and Southeast Asia.  Landings were to be handled by captains.

Kwon Yong-bok, the man responsible for flight safety in South Korea, says the recent NTSB visit to Asiana headquarters concentrated on pilot education and training, and maintenance of the 777.  But he says investigators⁴ should also look at the San Francisco airport.

“The airport instituted non-precision instrument approaches and this reflects that the airport itself is difficult for landing," says Kwon.  "I acknowledge that rather than the aviation authorities, the airline companies provide various landing trainings, such as automation and manual landing.”

Visual approaches

VOA asked Park Jong-kook, executive director of the Airline Pilots Association of Korea, about the amount of simulator training South Korean pilots receive for manual landings.

“Well, it is difficult to say that it is adequate or not adequate because we do visual approaches once in every six months," says Park. "It could be extended to do one more, in six months, but other training is needed as well." 

Park says the pilots' union is not demanding more training on visual approaches.

Aviation experts say more training would lead to better proficiency⁵.  Sources say Asiana flights routinely decline offers of visual approaches from air traffic controllers. Captain Hooper says his first officers always opted⁶ to fly an instrument landing approach to avoid the risk of error and subsequent reprimand. 

“They rely on automation because there is concern about their continued employment and their success,” Hooper says.

Pilots tell VOA that air traffic controllers hesitate to approve visual approaches until they know who’s landing the plane. 

A former Asiana pilot who spoke⁷ with us on condition of anonymity⁸ said, on one flight, he was circling a U.S. airport when he called air traffic control to tell them his plane had 23 minutes of fuel before he would be forced to divert to another airport.  The controller asked him a few coded questions first to determine if he was American.

“He says, ‘Okay you’re cleared out of the holding pattern, you’re clear for the visual approach.’  Expats [expatriates] whose first language is English will let the tower know that they speak English and get much more expedited and better handling.”

Vic Hooper agrees.

“Unless they [air traffic controllers] heard a Western voice on the radio, [they] would never offer a visual approach unless there was not any choice.”

Bringing in Western expertise⁹

Captain Hooper and other Western pilots were brought into South Korea by Boeing after a series of plane crashes in the 1990’s.  After a 1997 accident on Guam, the South Korean government suspended 138 KAL flights every week for six months. 

After a 1999 accident in England, Transport Canada issued a notice of suspension to Korean Air, but the airline implemented¹⁰ corrective actions and the suspension was never implemented.  Korean Air and Asiana overhauled¹¹ their training programs, to include more Western trainers. 

In 2001, The Federal Aviation Administration dropped South Korea's International Safety Rating to a Category 2.  The release said “Korea does not comply with international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization,” a United Nations agency for aviation.  The country corrected the safety concerns and was reinstated to Category 1 later that year. 

During this time, Jim Hall was chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.  He directed the FAA to investigate South Korea’s safety record.  VOA showed him examples of Asiana and Korean Air episodes over Canadian airspace starting five years after the category upgrade and lasting¹² until a few months ago. They include language problems, flying at wrong altitudes, not following air traffic control orders or failing to communicate, deviations¹³ from flight plans, and more.

“I would be interested in trying to do the historic work if I was in the FAA, which you have already done, to see whether this is an isolated¹⁴ incident or whether there is a pattern here," says Hall. "Why are these steps that had been taken earlier, these automation issues, language issues and cultural issues are reappearing again in a fatal accident at the San Francisco Airport.”

The NTSB isn’t commenting on an existing investigation¹⁵. Just hours after the crash, Asiana executives apologized for the crash.  But, Asiana declined to be interviewed on the subject.

A statement by Korean Air said it had strengthened training programs with increased simulator time, new operations manuals, employee safety bonuses and more - steps the airline said are significant changes made over the past 15 years.

Additional reporting by Brandon Goldner in Washington, D.C., and Daniel Schearf in Seoul. 

1 beacons   

灯塔( beacon的名词复数 )； 烽火； 指路明灯； 无线电台或发射台

参考例句：

• A chain of beacons was lit across the region. 整个地区点起了一系列灯塔。
• Lighthouse and beacons flash at night. 晚上灯塔与信号台闪着光。

2 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

3 aborted   

adj.流产的，失败的v.（使）流产( abort的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）（某事物）中止；（因故障等而）（使）（飞机、宇宙飞船、导弹等）中断飞行；（使）（飞行任务等）中途失败

参考例句：

• The rocket flight had to be aborted because of difficulties with computer. 因电脑出故障，这次火箭飞行只好中辍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They aborted the space flight finally. 他们最后中止了这次宇航飞行。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 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》

5 proficiency   

n.精通，熟练，精练

参考例句：

• He plied his trade and gained proficiency in it.他勤习手艺，技术渐渐达到了十分娴熟的地步。
• How do you think of your proficiency in written and spoken English?你认为你的书面英语和口语熟练程度如何？

6 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 anonymity   

n.the condition of being anonymous

参考例句：

• Names of people in the book were changed to preserve anonymity. 为了姓名保密，书中的人用的都是化名。
• Our company promises to preserve the anonymity of all its clients. 我们公司承诺不公开客户的姓名。

9 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

10 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

11 overhauled   

v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越

参考例句：

• Within a year the party had drastically overhauled its structure. 一年内这个政党已大刀阔斧地整顿了结构。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A mechanic overhauled the car's motor with some new parts. 一个修理工对那辆汽车的发动机进行了彻底的检修，换了一些新部件。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

13 deviations   

背离，偏离( deviation的名词复数 )； 离经叛道的行为

参考例句：

• Local deviations depend strongly on the local geometry of the solid matrix. 局部偏离严格地依赖于固体矩阵的局部几何形状。
• They were a series of tactical day-to-day deviations from White House policy. 它们是一系列策略上一天天摆脱白宫政策的偏向。

14 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

15 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。