搜寻人员再度探测到黑匣子信号

Search crews have regained contact with underwater pings consistent with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's 'black boxes,' increasing the chances that they have located the missing jet.

搜寻人员再次探测到上周末发现的与马来西亚航空(Malaysia Airlines) 370航班黑匣子频率一致的水下脉冲信号，令定位这架失联航班的希望增大。

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is leading the multinational search in the southern Indian Ocean, said Wednesday they have now detected signals on four separate occasions in the same area. The latest signals were weaker than the initial pings detected over the weekend, suggesting the jet's flight recorders were close to running out of batteries, he said.

领导印度洋南部多国搜寻行动的澳大利亚空军上将休斯敦(Angus Houston)周三表示，他们已在同一片海域四次探测到脉冲信号。他说，最新探测到的信号比周末最初探测到的信号要弱，这说明飞机黑匣子的电池即将耗尽。

The signals, picked up twice on Tuesday, were held for five and seven minutes, respectively: much shorter than an initial two hour transmission on Saturday. Still, officials are increasingly confident they are narrowing in on the spot where investigators believe the jet ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean after vanishing on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

这些信号在当地时间周二被探测到两次，分别持续了5分钟和7分钟，明显弱于上周六最初探测到的信号，当时持续了两个小时。但官员们仍越来越相信搜索范围正在缩小，正在靠近调查人员所推断的飞机耗尽燃油后坠海的地点。马航370航班在3月8日从吉隆坡飞往北京的途中失踪。

An analysis of the initial signals found that they were consistent with the kind of electronic pings that would be emitted by locator beacons attached to the jet's flight recorders, Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

澳大利亚空军上将休斯敦说，最初探测到的信号的分析显示，它们与失联飞机两个黑匣子上的定位信标发出的电子信号频率一致。

'It's nothing natural, it comes from a man-made device, and it's consistent with the locator on a black box,' the former Australian defense force chief said. 'I am now optimistic that we will find the aircraft or what is left of the aircraft in the not too distant future.'

这位澳大利亚前国防军司令说，探测到的信号并非自然信号，而是来自人造设备，并且与黑匣子上的定位器信号一致。他说，他现在乐观地认为，将在不远的将来找到飞机或者飞机残骸。

But he added that search crews still needed hard evidence, such as a photograph of the wreckage, before declaring the final resting place of Flight 370. Officials also cautioned that deep water currents and silt on the seabed could slow the discovery of any plane wreckage.

但他补充说，搜寻人员仍然需要确凿的证据，比如飞机残骸的照片，然后才能宣布370航班最终所在位置。官员们警告说，深海洋流和海底淤泥可能阻碍飞机残骸的寻找工作。

The Australian naval ship Ocean Shield has been sweeping a 7-mile strip of the southern Indian Ocean since April 4. It is towing a U.S. Navy device nearly 2 miles beneath the ocean surface, listening for sounds from the black boxes. Other vessels, including the Chinese ship Haixun 01, are also doing an underwater search of an area farther south. Air Chief Marshal Houston said Haixun 01 hadn't detected any new signals since late last week.

澳大利亚军舰“海盾号”(Ocean Shield)自4月4日以来一直在南印度洋一条7英里（约合11公里）长的地带进行搜索。该舰拖着一个在水下近2英里（约合3公里）处工作的美国海军(U.S. Navy)设备，探测黑匣子紧急定位信标所发出的信号。包括中国“海巡01号”在内的其他舰船也在更南的区域进行水下搜寻。休斯敦说，“海巡01号”自上周晚些时后以来就没有探测到新的信号。

Beacons on the two flight recorders aboard the plane have an estimated battery life of about 30 days before they stop emitting signals. It has been longer than that since the plane disappeared from civilian radar with 239 people on board. Authorities said Wednesday the latest pings appeared to have come from a single source, suggesting one of the beacons may have fallen silent.

这两个黑匣子的定位信标的电池寿命大概有30天，电量用尽后将不再发出信号。自这架搭载着239人从吉隆坡飞往北京的飞机在3月8日失联以来已经过去超过30天。有关部门周三表示，最新的脉冲信号似乎是同一来源，这意味着其中一个定位信标可能已经陷入沉寂。

Unless search crews can pinpoint a more precise location for the signals--which are currently up to 25 kilometers apart--undersea vehicles hunting for plane wreckage on the ocean floor would need to cover a zone of about 1,300 square kilometers (502 square miles), according to the U.S. Navy, which is coordinating the underwater search. The submersibles travel at walking pace, meaning it could be weeks rather than days before any debris is found.

协助进行海底搜寻的美国海军称，除非搜寻人员能够更准确地定位信号（目前最远间隔25公里），否则在海底搜寻飞机残骸的潜水器就需要搜寻大约1,300平方公里的面积。潜水器前进速度与步行速度相当，这意味着可能要花费数周、而非数日才能找到残骸。

'The more effort we put into location of where the transmission is coming from, the more certainty we will have that we will find something on the bottom of the ocean,' Air Chief Marshal Houston said. 'The batteries of both devices are past their use by date and they will very shortly fail. I think we are very fortunate in fact to get some transmissions on day 33.'

休斯敦说，为定位信号发射位置所做的努力越多，他们就越发确定将在海底有所发现。他说，两个设备的电池都已经超期，电量很快将耗尽。他认为在飞机失联33天的时候收到一些信号实际上已经十分幸运。

To avoid interfering with the delicate search for signals, authorities said Wednesday they are holding back on deploying any other ships or underwater vehicles. Still, they dropped several sonar buoys which can hear at depths of 1,000 feet to help narrow the search zone further. Choosing to deploy the Bluefin-21, a torpedo-shaped submersible drone currently strapped to the Ocean Shield's deck, would mark another switch in the search, effectively signaling an end to hopes of more signals from the black boxes.

有关部门周三表示，为了不干扰细致的信号搜寻工作，他们仍然没有向搜索区安排任何其他船只或水下设备。不过，他们投放了多个声纳浮标，以便帮助进一步缩小搜索范围。这些声呐浮标能够在水下1,000英尺（约300米）深的地方侦听信号。如果选择部署蓝鳍-21 (Bluefin-21)，则将意味着搜寻工作的又一转变，实际上意味着黑匣子没有什么希望进一步发出信号。蓝鳍-21这个无人潜航器目前绑在海盾号的甲板上。

'I would imagine it's not far away before we deploy something to go down and have a look,' Air Chief Marshal Houston said, referring to the underwater vehicles.

空军上将休斯顿说，他认为这或许意味着距离投放水下工具进行搜索不远了。

Complicating the effort, the area of ocean where the signals were detected is some 2.8 miles deep. Those depths are at the absolute limit of the Bluefin, which might mean that crews would have to use other submersibles or drop cameras to the ocean floor to investigate.

探测到信号的海域水深大约2.8英里（合4.5公里），这让搜索行动变得复杂。这样的深度是蓝鳍-21工作的绝对极限，这可能意味着工作人员将不得不使用其他潜水装置或把摄像机放入海底来展开调查。

Authorities think the seabed is covered with a thick carpet of silt that might be distorting the signals and could also handicap any undersea vehicles sent to look for plane wreckage using sonar initially and later video cameras. The silt also may hide debris from Flight 370 that likely scattered over a wide area as it sank to the ocean floor, they said.

有关部门认为，海床被厚厚的淤泥覆盖，这可能扭曲了信号，并有可能给任何水下设备的工作造成困难。这些设备最初将使用声纳，随后将利用摄像机搜索飞机残骸。官员们说，淤泥还可能掩盖了370航班的残骸。在飞机沉入海底时，残骸可能分散在一个很宽广的区域内。

The two-year underwater hunt for the black boxes of Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, provides some sobering lessons in the search for Flight 370. The ocean floor in the Air France crash was nearly 2.5 miles deep, with forbidding peaks and valleys. It took small robotic submarines provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution nearly 60 trips under the surface before the black boxes were discovered.

此前，在水下搜索法国航空(Air France) 447航班黑匣子的工作持续了两年，当时的搜索工作可以为370航班的搜索提供一些经验。法国航空447航班2009年在大西洋坠毁。上述法航航班坠毁地点的海底深度为2.5英里（合4公里），海底地形复杂多变。伍兹霍尔海洋研究所(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)提供的小型机器人潜艇执行了近60次水下任务才找到黑匣子。