台湾复兴航空客机失事 至少31人罹难

TAIPEI — A TransAsia Airways plane with 58 passengers and crew on board cartwheeled into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown Taipei airport on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people and leaving about a dozen missing, officials said.

台湾官员表示，一架载有58名乘客和机组人员的复兴航空(TransAsia Airways)客机周三在台北松山机场起飞后不久在侧飞状态下坠入河中，导致至少31人死亡，还有几人失踪。

As many as 28 people appeared to have escaped from the crash after the plane lurched sickeningly between buildings, clipped an overpass with its port-side wing and crashed upside down in the shallow river.

多达28人似乎从这起坠机事故中生还。此前这架飞机摇摇摆摆地在建筑物之间穿过，左侧机翼擦撞高架桥，最后坠入一条浅河。

Dramatic pictures taken by a motorist and posted on Twitter showed the plane cartwheeling over the motorway soon after the turboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft took off in apparently clear weather on a domestic flight for the island of Kinmen.

一名驾车者拍摄并上传至Twitter的惊险画面显示，这架飞机在高速公路上方侧飞。当时这架ATR 72-600型螺旋桨飞机刚刚起飞，在显然晴朗的天气下执飞前往金门的国内航班。

Television footage showed survivors wearing life jackets wading and swimming clear of wreckage. Others, including a young child, were taken to shore by rescuers.

电视画面显示身穿救生衣的幸存者在涉水和游泳，以逃离飞机残骸。其他人，包括一名幼童，被救援人员带到岸边。

Emergency rescue officials in inflatable boats crowded around the partially submerged fuselage of flight GE235, lying on its side in the river, trying to help those on board.

搭乘充气橡皮艇的救援人员围着GE235航班的机身，试图营救仍在机上的人。机身有一部分淹没于水中，处于侧立状态。

Taiwan’s fire department classified 10 of the passengers as showing “no sign of life” and one killed. Twenty-eight people had been rescued, it said in a text message, leaving 19 unaccounted for.

台湾消防部门曾表示，10名乘客“没有生命迹象”，另一人死亡。消防部门还曾在一条短信中透露，有28人获救，这意味着当时还有19人下落不明。

Other Taiwanese government authorities said the aircraft was carrying 58 passengers and crew, including 31 tourists from mainland China.

台湾政府的其他部门表示，该机载有58名乘客和机组人员，其中包括来自中国大陆的31名游客。

The plane appeared to miss apartment buildings by metres. Footage showed a van skidding to a halt on the damaged overpass after barely missing the plane’s wing, with small pieces of the aircraft scattered along the road.

该机似乎从几米开外掠过公寓楼。画面显示，一辆面包车几乎被这架飞机的机翼擦到，该车在受损的高架桥上急刹车，路上散落着飞机上掉下来的一些小碎片。

The chief executive of TransAsia, Chen Xinde, bowed deeply at a televised news conference as he apologised to passengers and crew.

复兴航空首席执行长陈欣德在新闻发布会上深鞠躬，向乘客和机组人员致歉。

The last communication from one of the aircraft’s pilots was “Mayday Mayday, engine flame-out”, according to an air traffic control recording on .

根据网站发布的空中交通管制录音，该机一名飞行员的最后一次呼叫是“紧急呼救，发动机熄火”。

A flame-out occurs when the fuel supply to the engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion, resulting in an engine failure. Twin-engined aircraft, however, are usually able to keep flying even when one engine has failed.

当发动机燃料供应中断或出现燃烧故障时，就会发生熄火，导致发动机故障。不过，双发飞机即使有一台发动机发生故障，通常也能继续飞行。

Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport, the smaller of the city’s two airports, provides mostly domestic flights but also connections to Japan, China and South Korea.

地处台北市中心的松山机场是该市两个机场中较小的一个，主要提供国内航班，但也有前往日本、中国大陆和韩国的航班。

A statement from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said 31 one of those on board were tourists from the southeastern city of Xiamen, which lies close to Taiwan’s Kinmen island.

中国国务院台湾事务办公室的一份声明称，机上有31人是来自东南部城市厦门的游客，该市与台湾的金门岛隔海相望。

The crash is the latest in a string of disasters to hit Asian carriers in the past 12 months. An AirAsia jet bound for Singapore crashed soon after taking off from the Indonesian city of Surabaya on December 28, killing all 162 people on board.

此次坠机是过去12个月里打击亚洲航空公司的一连串灾难的最新一起。12月28日，一架飞往新加坡的亚航(AirAsia)喷气式客机从印尼泗水市起飞后坠海，机上162人全部遇难。

Also last year, a Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared and one of its sister planes was downed over Ukraine with a combined loss of 539 lives.

同样在去年，马来西亚航空公司(Malaysia Airlines)的一架客机失踪，另一架客机在飞越乌克兰时被击落，共计有539人遇难。

TransAsia is Taiwan’s third-largest carrier. One of its ATR 72-500 planes crashed while trying to land at Penghu Island last July, killing 48 of the 58 passengers and crew on board.

复兴航空是台湾第三大航空公司。去年7月，该公司一架ATR 72-500型客机在澎湖岛尝试降落时失事，导致58名乘客和机组人员中的48人死亡。

Taiwan has had a poor aviation safety record in recent years, including the disintegration of a China Airlines Boeing 747 on a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong in 2002, killing 225. In 1998, a China Airlines A300 crashed while trying to land at Taipei’s main international airport, killing 196.

近年来台湾在航空安全记录方面表现糟糕。2002年，华航(China Airlines)一架波音747 (Boeing 747)客机在从台北飞往香港途中解体，造成225人遇难。1998年，华航一架空客A300 (Airbus A300)客机在台北主要国际机场试图降落时坠毁，造成196人遇难。

In 2000, a Singapore Airlines jetliner taking off for Los Angeles during a storm hit construction equipment on the runway, killing at least 77 people.

2000年，新加坡航空公司(Singapore Airlines)一架客机在暴风雨中起飞准备前往洛杉矶，结果撞到跑道上的工程机械，造成至少77人死亡。

The aircraft involved in Wednesday’s crash was among the first of the ATR 72-600s, the latest variant of the turboprop aircraft, that TransAsia received in 2014 as part of an order of eight aircraft two years earlier.

周三坠河的飞机是复兴航空在2014年接收的首批最新型ATR 72-600螺旋桨客机之一，两年前该公司订购了8架此型飞机。

The 72-seat aircraft are mainly used to connect the capital, Taipei, with smaller cities and islands.

这款72个座位的客机主要用于连接台北与台湾各地的较小城市和岛屿。

ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica.

ATR是空客与意大利芬梅卡尼卡(Finmeccanica)子公司阿莱尼亚-马基(Alenia Aermacchi)组建的合资公司。