在亚太地区坐飞机究竟安全吗

Concerns Over Safety of Air Travel in Asia

在亚太地区坐飞机究竟安全吗

Fatal crashes of Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and TransAsia Airways planes in the past year have prompted travelers to raise questions about the safety of Asian carriers and whether steps are being taken to ensure their security.

在过去一年中，马来西亚航空、亚洲航空(AirAsia)和复兴航空(TransAsia Airways)的致命事故令旅行者对亚洲航运公司的安全性以及这些公司是否正在采取措施确保安全提出质疑。

Officials said at least 35 people died Wednesday morning when a TransAsia twin turboprop crashed into the Keelung River shortly after leaving the downtown Taipei Songshan Airport. Fifty-eight passengers (31 of whom were Chinese nationals) were on board the flight bound for the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands located near Xiamen in southeastern China. The Aviation Safety Council in Taiwan said Friday that the plane had trouble with its engines before the crash.

官员们称，周三早上，复兴航空公司的一架双涡轮螺旋桨飞机从台北市中心的松山机场起飞后不久坠入基隆河，至少导致35人死亡。机上的58名乘客(其中31人来自中国大陆)本计划飞往金门岛。金门由台湾控制，离中国东南部的厦门市不远。周五，台湾飞航安全调查委员会称，飞机坠毁前，引擎出现故障。

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing (and has yet to be found) en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8 with 239 on board, and Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was apparently shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine on July 17 with none of the 298 passengers and crew surviving.

去年3月8日，马来西亚航空公司的370航班在从马来西亚吉隆坡飞往北京途中失踪(至今仍未找到)，机上共有239人。去年7月17日，马航17航班在乌克兰东部明显被地对空导弹击落，机上的298名乘客和机组人员无一生还。

On Dec. 28, 162 lives were lost when AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea less than an hour into its flight from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. AirAsia is based at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and is part of the AirAsia Group, which also has its headquarters in Malaysia.

去年12月28日，亚航8501航班从印度尼西亚泗水飞往新加坡，起飞后不到一小时坠入爪哇海，共有162人丧生。亚航位于吉隆坡国际机场，隶属于亚航集团，该集团的总部也在马来西亚。

Despite being operated by Asian carriers, the circumstances of the crashes varied, according to investigations into each.

尽管这些航班都是亚洲的航空公司运营的，但是根据每起事故的调查结果，失事情况各不相同。

Indonesian investigators are gradually learning and revealing more about the AirAsia crash after securing the flight data recorder and cockpit recorder last month. They announced two weeks ago that the Airbus A320-200 was climbing at an excessive rate before disappearing from radar, and officials said last week that the co-pilot was in control of Flight 8501 during its last radio transmission.

印度尼西亚调查者在上月获得飞行数据记录器和驾驶舱记录仪后，正在逐步获悉并公布亚航失事飞机的更多情况。两周前，他们宣布，空客A320-200在从雷达上消失前，曾以过高的速度爬升。上周，官员们说，在最后一次无线电通话中，操纵8501航班的是副驾驶员。

Also last week, the Malaysia Department of Civil Aviation officially called Flight 370 an accident, which should make it easier for victims’ families to start receiving compensation from Malaysia Airlines and its insurers.

也是在上周，马来西亚民航局正式宣布370航班失事，因此遇难者家属可以开始向马来西亚航空公司及其保险公司索赔。

TransAsia Airways, a Taipei-based carrier that serves destinations in Asia and Southeast Asia, has improved its safety record over the years and had plans to expand its reach under its owner Goldsun Development & Construction Company, but it will likely be under heavy scrutiny with two deadly crashes in fewer than seven months.

台北的复兴航空公司提供飞往亚洲和东南亚的航班，近些年其安全纪录有所提高，它原本计划在所有者，国产实业建设公司的领导下进一步扩张，但是在不到七个月的时间里发生两起致命空难，它很可能会遭到严格调查。

Forty-eight died aboard TransAsia Flight 222 on July 23 when the plane tried to make an emergency landing in Taiwan’s Penghu Islands during storms brought on by Typhoon Matmo. According to the Aviation Safety Network, it was the carrier’s first deadly crash since Dec. 21, 2002, when two lost their lives on a cargo flight to Macau.

去年7月23日，复兴航空公司的222航班试图在台湾澎湖岛紧急降落时失事，机上48人遇难，当时正值台风“麦德姆”在该地区造成暴风雨。据航空安全网称，那是该航空公司自2002年12月21日以来的首次致命事故。2002年，一架货机在飞往澳门途中失事，两人丧生。

“What I can say is that TransAsia has passed an international safety audit,” Harro Ranter, founder and director of the Aviation Safety Network, wrote in an email. “Airlines need to pass this audit to be able to become a member of IATA [International Air Transport Association], the industry organization for airlines.”

“我能说的是，复兴航空公司已通过国际安全审查，”航空安全网的创立者、主管哈罗·朗泰尔(Harro Ranter)在电子邮件中说，“航空公司必须通过这项审查才能成为国际航空运输协会会员，该协会是航空公司的行业组织。”

But with the number of crashes in the region in the past year, should prospective passengers be concerned about overall airline safety in the region?

但是鉴于该地区过去一年中发生的空难次数，未来的乘客们需要担忧该地区的总体飞行安全吗?

“Given the fact that last year was the safest year even by the number of fatal passenger flight accidents, there is no reason to be afraid,” Mr. Ranter said. “The level of aviation safety is at its best, both in absolute and in relative (compared to number of flights) terms.”

“甚至从致命民航飞行事故次数角度讲，去年也是最安全的一年，所以没必要担心，”朗泰尔说，“不管从绝对值还是相对值(与航班数相比)上看，飞行安全水平正值其最佳时期。”

Flight 370 was Malaysia Airlines’ first fatal crash since Sept. 15, 1995, and AirAsia never had a deadly crash before Flight 8501 went down. However, the Indonesian Transportation Ministry has suspended officials and is conducting a wider investigation after it was found that Flight 8501 was allowed to take off from Surabaya on Dec. 28 without having the necessary clearances.

370航班是马来西亚航空公司自1995年9月15日以来的首次致命事故。在8501航班失事前，亚航从未发生过一起致命空难。不过，印度尼西亚交通部已暂停相关官员的职务，在发现去年12月28日8501航班在没有获得必要许可的情况下被允许从泗水起飞后，更广泛的调查已在进行中。

Concern about the safety of Indonesia aviation is not new; the Federal Aviation Administration has rated the country a Category 2, which means it “does not comply with international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)” — since 2007. To upgrade to Category 1, an F.A.A. spokesman wrote in an email, “in general, the Indonesia CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] must bring their aviation system into compliance with ICAO standards in areas such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record keeping or inspection procedures.”

关于印尼航空安全的忧虑由来已久。自2007年起，联邦航空管理局将该国的航空安全等级列入二类，意思是它“不符合国际民用航空组织设定的国际安全标准”。联邦航空管理局的一位发言人在邮件中写道，要想升入一类，“总的来说，印度尼西亚民航局必须使其航空系统在专业技术、专门人才、记录保持和检查程序等方面达到国际民用航空组织的标准”。

Training is one of the many issues airlines in the region need to improve upon, according to Desmond Ross, aviation adviser and principal at Desmond Ross & Associates International, an aviation security and safety company.

航空安全公司德斯蒙德·罗斯联合公司(Desmond Ross & Associates International)的航空顾问、主管德斯蒙德·罗斯说，培训是该地区航空公司需要改进的很多问题之一。

“You have some of these airlines in the region who are ordering aircraft by the dozens. You need to have the people to operate those aircraft,” he said from Australia. “If you stop and think about it, the aircraft is supposed to operate 24 hours a day, so you probably need three crews per plane. About 35 people on average for every single aircraft in an airline. So where are these people being trained? There’s not enough training going on. There is a pilot shortage. There’s an engineering shortage.

“该地区的这些航空公司往往是一下子订购几十架飞机。总得有人来管控这些飞机，”他在澳大利亚说，“你停下来想一想就会发现，飞机往往是一天24小时运营，所以每架飞机很可能需要三组工作人员，平均共需要约35个人。那么这些人是在哪儿培训的呢?正在进行的培训是不够的。这些航空公司缺乏飞行员和工程师。”

“It’s the budget carrier model,” Mr. Ross added. “Personally I don’t fly on low-cost carriers and I don’t plan on doing so. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on below the surface that people don’t see. And not all airlines have the slots filled. It’s not like introducing a new taxi to a taxi company. It requires a lot of certification, which comes from the regulators doing their job. There is a problem with rapid growth and not keeping up with the demands of the industry.”

“这就是廉价航空公司的模式，”罗斯补充说，“我个人从未乘坐过廉价航空公司的航班，也不打算乘坐。有很多东西藏在表面现象之下，人们看不到。不是所有航空公司都填补了这些空白。这不像出租车公司新加一辆出租车。它需要很多认证，这些认证需要监管部门认真核查。这些航空公司在快速发展的同时未能满足行业要求。”

The Philippines returned to Category 1 status last April after being downgraded to a Category 2 for more than six years.

去年4月，菲律宾的航空安全等级在被降至二类六年多之后重返一类。

Philippine Airlines, along with other airlines in the Asia Pacific region known as ASPAC, “has invested billions of dollars in modern aircraft acquisitions, the latest innovations in flight deck automation and technology, safety enhancement and warning systems, as well as the very latest methodologies in flight crew training and evaluation programs,” the Philippine Airlines president and chief operating officer Jaime J. Bautista wrote in an email.

菲律宾航空公司总裁、首席运营官杰米·J·鲍蒂斯塔(Jaime J. Bautista)在邮件中写道，菲律宾航空公司以及亚太地区的其他航空公司“已投入数十亿美元购买先进飞机，革新驾驶舱自动化技术，改善安全和报警系统，引入最新的机组人员培训和评估程序”。

“As a result, and despite the coincidental geographic associations which have been drawn, passengers on Philippine Airlines enjoy an equivalent level of safety as their North America and European counterparts,” he added. “In fact, according to the 2013 IATA Safety Report, the number of commercial air accidents occurring in ASPAC (17) was actually lower than the number of accidents occurring in North America (18) and Europe (22) over the same period of time.”

“所以，尽管人们已经把这些偶然事件联系起来，认为是这一地区的整体问题，但是实际上菲律宾航空公司的乘客们享受的安全水平与北美、欧洲的乘客是一样的，”他补充说，“实际上，据国际航空运输协会2013年的报告，发生在亚太地区的商业飞行事故(17起)实际上低于同期发生在北美(18起)和欧洲(22起)的事故。”

The accident rate (2.89) in ASPAC was actually higher than North America (1.52) and Europe (2.76) during that time period based on the International Air Transport Association’s data, but the numbers do show that airline travel is generally safe.

根据国际航空运输协会的数据，亚太地区的航空事故率(2.89)实际上高于同时期北美(1.52)和欧洲(2.76)的事故率，但是这些数据的确表明，乘飞机旅行总体来说是安全的。

According to the Geneva-based Aircraft Crashes Record Office, there were 120 airplane crashes around the world in 2014 — the fewest since 1927.

据日内瓦的空难档案馆称，2014年全球共发生120起空难，是1927年以来最少的。

“Even in the worst year, air travel is safe,” Darryl Jenkins, chairman of the American Aviation Institute, wrote in an email.

“即使在最糟糕的年份里，航空飞行也是安全的，”美国航空研究所所长达里尔·詹金斯(Darryl Jenkins)在邮件中写道。

Still, Mr. Jenkins said that he realizes that safer skies — there were an average of 168.8 crashes worldwide between 2004 and 2013 according to ACRO — aren’t enough to ease all of travelers’ concerns, especially when a plane going down can become the focus of 24-hour news channels’ programming.

不过，詹金斯说，他知道，乘飞机更安全的事实(根据空难档案馆的统计，2004年至2013年全球平均每年发生168.8起空难)不足以抚慰所有旅行者的焦虑，特别是飞机失事会成为24小时新闻频道节目的焦点。

“In the case of Malaysia Airlines [Flight 370], confidence was shaken,” he said. “I can only think of two other times a crash was this bad for an airline: ValuJet [Flight 592 on May 11, 1996, which killed 110] and US Airways [USAir Flight 427 on Sept. 8, 1994, which killed 132].”

“马航[370航班]事件动摇了人们的信心，”他说，“我只能想到另外两起对航空公司造成如此恶劣影响的事故：1996年5月11日瓦卢杰航空公司的592航班失事，110人遇难;1994年9月8日全美航空公司的427航班失事，132人遇难。”

The incoming Malaysia Airlines chief executive Christoph Mueller declined to comment on the carrier’s plans because, he said, he will not officially join the airline until March.

即将上任的马来西亚航空公司首席执行官克里斯托弗·米勒(Christoph Mueller)拒绝对该航空公司的计划作出评论，因为他说他到3月份才正式加入该航空公司。

Mr. Jenkins said he was uncertain about whether Malaysia Airlines could recover from the two crashes in 2014, but he did say he thought “AirAsia can.”

詹金斯说，他不确定马来西亚航空公司能否从2014年的两次事故中恢复过来，但是他说他觉得“亚航可以”。

If that happens, the AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes deserves much of the credit, said Tom Linton, a sales and marketing executive at Trails of Indochina, a destination management and luxury travel company based in Vietnam.

越南目的地管理和奢侈旅游公司印度支那之路(Trails of Indochina)的销售和市场主管汤姆·林顿(Tom Linton)说，如果亚航的确恢复过来了，那么应该主要归功于其首席执行官托尼·费尔南德斯(Tony Fernandes)。

Since retweeting the @AirAsia announcement that Flight 8501 had gone missing — “AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact at 07:24hrs this morning on.fb.me/1xpx5pl” — Mr. Fernandes has maintained an active presence on social media and in front of the cameras, providing updates and words of encouragement for the passengers’ families, friends and loved ones.

费尔南德斯在Twitter上转发了亚航宣布8501航班失踪的声明(“印度尼西亚亚洲航空公司遗憾地确认，从泗水飞往新加坡的QZ8501航班今天早上7点24分失去联系”)，之后，他一直活跃在社交媒体上和镜头前，提供最新消息，鼓励乘客家属、朋友和爱人。

“I think he’s been great,” Mr. Linton said. “The fact that he came on right away and he was so responsible and responsive by having an emergency update hotline set up and going on Twitter with updates — that’s what people want. Malaysia Airlines was a total mess” in its response to Flight 370, he said.

林顿说，“我觉得他很棒”，“他马上现身，非常负责，作出回应，设立紧急事件最新消息热线，在Twitter上不断发布最新消息——这些都是人们想要的”，而“马来西亚航空公司”在应对370航班事故时表现得“一团糟”。