臺灣復興航空客機失事 至少31人罹難

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.

臺灣官員表示，一架載有58名乘客和機組人員的復興航空(TransAsia Airways)客機週三在臺北松山機場起飛後不久在側飛狀態下墜入河中，導致至少31人死亡，還有幾人失蹤。

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.

多達28人似乎從這起墜機事故中生還。此前這架飛機搖搖擺擺地在建築物之間穿過，左側機翼擦撞高架橋，最後墜入一條淺河。

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.

一名駕車者拍攝並上傳至Twitter的驚險畫面顯示，這架飛機在高速公路上方側飛。當時這架ATR 72-600型螺旋槳飛機剛剛起飛，在顯然晴朗的天氣下執飛前往金門的國內航班。

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

電視畫面顯示身穿救生衣的倖存者在涉水和游泳，以逃離飛機殘骸。其他人，包括一名幼童，被救援人員帶到岸邊。

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.

搭乘充氣橡皮艇的救援人員圍着GE235航班的機身，試圖營救仍在機上的人。機身有一部分淹沒於水中，處於側立狀態。

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.

臺灣消防部門曾表示，10名乘客“沒有生命跡象”，另一人死亡。消防部門還曾在一條短信中透露，有28人獲救，這意味着當時還有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.

臺灣政府的其他部門表示，該機載有58名乘客和機組人員，其中包括來自中國大陸的31名遊客。

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.

該機似乎從幾米開外掠過公寓樓。畫面顯示，一輛麪包車幾乎被這架飛機的機翼擦到，該車在受損的高架橋上急剎車，路上散落着飛機上掉下來的一些小碎片。

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

復興航空首席執行長陳欣德在新聞發佈會上深鞠躬，向乘客和機組人員致歉。

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

根據網站發佈的空中交通管制錄音，該機一名飛行員的最後一次呼叫是“緊急呼救，發動機熄火”。

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.

當發動機燃料供應中斷或出現燃燒故障時，就會發生熄火，導致發動機故障。不過，雙發飛機即使有一臺發動機發生故障，通常也能繼續飛行。

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.

地處臺北市中心的松山機場是該市兩個機場中較小的一個，主要提供國內航班，但也有前往日本、中國大陸和韓國的航班。

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.

中國國務院臺灣事務辦公室的一份聲明稱，機上有31人是來自東南部城市廈門的遊客，該市與臺灣的金門島隔海相望。

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.

此次墜機是過去12個月裏打擊亞洲航空公司的一連串災難的最新一起。12月28日，一架飛往新加坡的亞航(AirAsia)噴氣式客機從印尼泗水市起飛後墜海，機上162人全部遇難。

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.

同樣在去年，馬來西亞航空公司(Malaysia Airlines)的一架客機失蹤，另一架客機在飛越烏克蘭時被擊落，共計有539人遇難。

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.

復興航空是臺灣第三大航空公司。去年7月，該公司一架ATR 72-500型客機在澎湖島嘗試降落時失事，導致58名乘客和機組人員中的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.

近年來臺灣在航空安全記錄方面表現糟糕。2002年，華航(China Airlines)一架波音747 (Boeing 747)客機在從臺北飛往香港途中解體，造成225人遇難。1998年，華航一架空客A300 (Airbus A300)客機在臺北主要國際機場試圖降落時墜毀，造成196人遇難。

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)一架客機在暴風雨中起飛準備前往洛杉磯，結果撞到跑道上的工程機械，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.

週三墜河的飛機是復興航空在2014年接收的首批最新型ATR 72-600螺旋槳客機之一，兩年前該公司訂購了8架此型飛機。

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

這款72個座位的客機主要用於連接臺北與臺灣各地的較小城市和島嶼。

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

ATR是空客與意大利芬梅卡尼卡(Finmeccanica)子公司阿萊尼亞-馬基(Alenia Aermacchi)組建的合資公司。