Air disaster investigators from the U.S. are in China to probe plane crash

Air disaster investigators¹ from the U.S. are in China to probe plane crash

Transcript²

On March 21, China Eastern flight 5735 plunged³ more than 7,000 feet in a minute — hitting the ground nose first at near supersonic speeds. All 132 people onboard were killed.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Air disaster investigators from the U.S. are in China this week. They've arrived to help figure out what happened to a Chinese flight that crashed last month, killing⁴ all 132 people on board. NPR's Emily Feng is in Beijing.

EMILY FENG, BYLINE⁵: What stands out the most about China Eastern Flight 5735 are its last moments. On March 21, it plunged more than 7,000 feet in a minute, pulling up slightly but then shooting down again, hitting the ground nose first at near supersonic speeds. The wreckage⁶ of the plane was scattered⁷ across a tropical hillside in southern China, some fragments buried up to 60 feet deep. Here's David Yu, a Shanghai-based aircraft appraiser⁸.

DAVID YU: Well, generally speaking, look; if you're a normal aircraft and you basically shut off all the engines, the plane is actually built to basically glide⁹, OK?

FENG: So that 90-degree angle at which the plane hit the ground is highly unusual. Chinese air crash investigators found nearly 50,000 fragments, including the plane's two flight recorders. Whatever cockpit voice recordings¹⁰ and flight data can be gleaned¹¹ from those recorders are now being analyzed¹² in Beijing and at the Washington, D.C., labs of the National Transportation Safety Board, a U.S. government investigation¹³ agency.

DANIEL ADJEKUM: And there's a reason why they should have access to this data because you want your investigation to be global, and it has to be credible¹⁴.

FENG: This is Daniel Adjekum, an aviation safety professor at the University of North Dakota. The plane that crashed was a U.S.-designed Boeing 737-800 plane, so American investigators have an interest in assessing whether this was a plane failure. But so far, Chinese investigators say all hypotheses are still on the table.

ADJEKUM: Maybe it was such a catastrophic loss of control that they were struggling to regain¹⁵ control of the aircraft. A second option is that the crew were incapacitated. The third possibility, which is remote, is that it could potentially have been an aircraft-assisted suicide. I'm not saying that's what happened, but you don't rule it out.

FENG: Last week, a team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators were able to fly to China and skip China's mandatory¹⁶ three-week quarantine to immediately begin helping¹⁷ with the Chinese investigation. And that means we could have more answers soon about China's worst civil aviation disaster in two decades.

Emily Feng, NPR News, Beijing.

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 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

4 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。

5 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。

6 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。

7 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

8 appraiser   

n.评价者，鉴定者，估价官

参考例句：

• The certification is invalid without the signature of appraiser, checker and approver. 鉴定书无主检、审核、批准签字无效。 来自互联网
• The "quasi-balance" appraiser is the people and the historical development. “准平衡”的评判者是人民大众和历史发展。 来自互联网

9 glide   

n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝

参考例句：

• We stood in silence watching the snake glide effortlessly.我们噤若寒蝉地站着，眼看那条蛇逍遥自在地游来游去。
• So graceful was the ballerina that she just seemed to glide.那芭蕾舞女演员翩跹起舞，宛如滑翔。

10 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

11 gleaned   

v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗

参考例句：

• These figures have been gleaned from a number of studies. 这些数据是通过多次研究收集得来的。
• A valuable lesson may be gleaned from it by those who have eyes to see. 明眼人可从中记取宝贵的教训。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 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。

14 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

15 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

16 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

17 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。