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Passengers are describing what happened when part of a passenger jet came off at the start of a flight from Portland, Oregon last Friday.
乘客们在上周五从俄勒冈州波特兰市飞往加利福尼亚南部安大略国际机场的航班起飞时发生的事情正在描述。
The incident resulted in no serious injuries, and the plane returned to Portland Airport soon after the dangerous incident. But had a few details been different, the flight could have ended in disaster.
这一事件没有造成严重伤害，飞机在这次危险事件发生后不久即返回波特兰机场。但是，如果一些细节有所不同，这次飞行可能会以灾难结束。
Kelly Bartlett was one of the passengers on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland. She told The Associated Press (AP) that, at first, passengers did not know what was happening. “We didn’t know if it meant we were going to crash,” she said.
凯利·巴特莱特是来自波特兰的阿拉斯加航空公司1282航班的乘客之一。她告诉美联社（AP），起初，乘客们不知道发生了什么。“我们不知道这是否意味着我们要坠毁，”她说。
The incident happened six minutes into the flight from Portland to Southern California’s Ontario International Airport. The jet, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, was traveling at about 640 kilometers an hour. It had reached an altitude of 4.8 kilometers. That detail is important. The plane was still far below its cruising altitude.
这一事件发生在从波特兰飞往南加利福尼亚安大略国际机场的航班起飞后六分钟。这架波音737 MAX 9型飞机的速度约为每小时640公里。它的飞行高度达到4.8公里。这一细节很重要。飞机仍远低于巡航高度。
Flight attendants had just told the 171 passengers that they could again use their electronic devices. Then, a piece of the airplane body 61 centimeters by 122 centimeters behind the left wing blew out.
机舱乘务员刚刚告诉171名乘客，他们可以再次使用电子设备。然后，在左机翼后方61厘米×122厘米处，飞机机身的一部分爆裂了。
The piece called a door plug, was meant to be a cover over an emergency exit that was not used on that MAX 9 version of the airplane. The cover permits extra seats to be put where an emergency exit would be. Air safety rules require airliners to have enough exits to permit all passengers and crew to get out of the aircraft in 90 seconds.
这部分被称为门插销，原本是用来覆盖在该型飞机的紧急出口上的。这个盖子可以让额外的座位放置在紧急出口的位置。航空安全规定要求飞机有足够的出口，以便在90秒内让所有乘客和机组人员离开飞机。
The AP noted, as fate would have it, nobody was sitting in the two seats next to the blown-out hole.
美联社注意到，恰逢其时，爆裂孔旁边的两个座位上没有人。
Emergency oxygen masks dropped immediately. At the same time, wind rushed into the cabin making it difficult for the flight attendants to walk or hear. But they moved toward the hole and began moving passengers away from the dangerous area. The sound made communication difficult.
紧急氧气面罩立即下降。与此同时，风迅速进入机舱，使机舱乘务员难以行走或听到声音。但他们朝着裂口走去，并开始将乘客移离危险区域。这种噪音使得交流变得困难。
The force from the loss of pressure in the cabin was strong enough to tear the shirt off the body of a teenager sitting nearby.
机舱压力丧失的力量足以把坐在附近的一名少年的衬衫
撕破。
His seatbelt “kept him in his seat and saved his life,” Bartlett said. Flight attendants moved the young person next to Bartlett. She asked him if he was hurt. He said he was OK and thanked her for her kindness.
巴特莱特说，他的安全带“让他保持在座位上，拯救了他的生命。”机舱乘务员将这名年轻人移动到巴特莱特旁边。她问他是否受伤。他说他没事，并感谢她的善意。
The pilots and the flight attendants have not made public statements and their names have not been released. However, they spoke to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators. They said they followed their training. The pilots’ goal was to get the plane back to Portland quickly. The flight attendants worked to keep the passengers safe and calm.
飞行员和机舱乘务员尚未发表公开声明，他们的名字也没有公布。然而，他们向国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）的调查人员发表了讲话。他们表示他们遵循了培训。飞行员的目标是迅速将飞机带回波特兰。机舱乘务员努力保持乘客的安全和冷静。
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the actions of the flight crew were “incredible.” Bartlett also praised the crew. She said she felt like the situation was under control.
NTSB主席詹妮弗·霍门迪表示，机组人员的行动“令人难以置信”。巴特莱特也赞扬了机组人员。她说她觉得情况已经得到了控制。
The pilots used an emergency handbook next to the captain’s seat. The co-pilot contacted air traffic controllers declaring an emergency and the need to descend to 3,000 meters. The lower altitude would give passengers more oxygen to breathe.
飞行员使用了机长座位旁边的紧急手册。副驾驶联系了空中交通管制员，宣布紧急状况，并需要下降到3000米。更低的高度将为乘客提供更多的氧气。
Homendy said the attention of the flight attendants immediately turned to five children who were traveling without adult supervision and two babies being carried by their parents.
霍门迪表示，机舱乘务员的注意力立即转向了五名没有成年人监护的儿童和两名由父母携带的婴儿。
van Granger was sitting close to the hole in the plane. He told NBC News, “There were so many things that had to go right in order for all of us to survive.”
范·格朗杰坐在飞机上的裂口附近。他告诉NBC新闻，“有很多事情必须得以顺利进行，我们所有人才能幸存。”
Homendy said that if the blowout had happened just a few minutes later when the plane would have reached its cruising height, the incident might have been a tragedy.
霍门迪表示，如果爆裂发生在稍晚几分钟，当飞机达到巡航高度时，这次事件可能会成为一场悲剧。
NTSB agents recovered the door plug that blew out, finding it completely intact. Many other things that flew out of the airplane were also recovered including a cellphone that was still working.
NTSB特工找回了爆裂的门插销，发现它完好无损。飞机上飞出的许多其他物品也被找回，包括一部仍在工作的手机。
Now the agency will investigate why the cover over the unused exit hole came off.
现在，该机构将调查未使用出口孔上的盖子为何脱落。
The incident happened days after a Japan Airlines Airbus 350 struck a coast guard plane on a runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and caught fire on January 3.
这一事件发生在日本航空公司的一架空中客车A350型飞机于1月3日在东京羽田机场的跑道上撞上一架海岸警卫队飞机并着火的几天后。
In that incident, four on the coast guard plane died. But 379 passengers and the crew of the airliner safely got out of the passenger plane before it burned up. However, reports say getting everyone out of the plane took about 18 minutes.
在那起事件中，海岸警卫队飞机上的四人死亡。但是，在客机燃烧之前，379名乘客和机组人员安全地离开了客机。然而，报道称将所有人从飞机上救出大约需要18分钟。
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Words in This Story
altitude –n. the height of something above sea level
exit –n. a doorway out of a building or vehicle
as fate would have it –idiom meant to express that something happened that is beyond human explanation
oxygen mask –(industry) an emergency device on large airplanes that deploys if air pressure inside gets too low
cabin –n. (in aviation) the inside of an airplane
seatbelt –n. a thin piece of material that is meant to protect against injury in a crash
intact –adj. whole and in one piece, not broken or damaged
