VOA标准英语2010年-Investigators Scour India Crash Wrecka

Investigators¹ in southern India are still searching for the cause of India's worst air crash in more than a decade. Eight people survived Saturday's crash, but 158 were killed.

 There were conflicting reports Sunday on whether searchers had found the plane's flight data recorders.  Recovery of the Boeing 737's recorders is crucial for determining what when wrong when the Air India Express plane overshot the Mangalore airport runway on landing, and skidded² into a ravine before bursting into flames.

The Times of India reports that the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is sending investigators to India at the request of the Indian government.

Meantime, relatives have been trying to identify bodies recovered from the wreckage³. 

All the bodies have been recovered from the charred⁴ remains⁵ of the Air India plane that caught fire after it overshot the runway and plunged⁶ down a cliff Saturday in the southern Indian city of Mangalore.

A woman wails⁷ next to a photo of her grand daughter, who died in an Air India Express plane crash in Mangalore, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sunday was a day of mourning as grieving relatives of the victims crowded the local hospital to identify the victims.  Many people said they could only do so with the help of clothes or jewelry⁸.

A forensic⁹ team is in the city to help with the identification of some badly charred bodies.

The passengers were coming home from Dubai, where the flight originated.  Many of them were on their way home for a vacation.

Prayers were held in many parts of the country for the victims.

There were only eight survivors¹⁰ among the 166 passengers and crew members.  This includes several children.

The Chairman of Air India, Arvind Jadhav, said he was "overwhelmed" by the help extended by the local residents of Mangalore in the rescue operation.  He said they played a crucial role in saving eight lives.

"They brought in the ambulances, people came forward, young doctors came forward, young students came forward, the local administration came forward," Jadhav said. "It is with their help we were able to recover all the 158 bodies in record time."  

At the site of the crash, investigators spent hours combing through the mangled¹¹ remains of the aircraft to find the plane's black box, flight-data recorder.  This will provide crucial clues to what caused the crash - India's worst in more than a decade.

Experts say the runway at Mangalore airport makes a bad crash inevitable¹² if the landing is not accurate.  The runway is built on a flat stretch of land on a hill, with a sheer drop on both sides.

But Air India chairman Jadhav has said there were no problems with the airport runway, and the pilot who landed the ill-fated aircraft had done so many times previously¹³, and was highly experienced.

"We do not allow a pilot who has not flown in Mangalore, we do not allow him to fly to Mangalore ... this gentlemen who was the commander had done 19 landings here," Jadhav said.

Officials have said they cannot speculate on the cause of the crash.  India's Civil Aviation Minister has said the weather and visibility were good, and there were no apparent signs of trouble when the flight landed.  A team has arrived from U.S.-based Boeing Aircraft to assist in efforts to determine the cause of the crash.

 

1 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 skidded   

v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的过去式和过去分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区

参考例句：

• The car skidded and hit a lamp post. 那辆汽车打滑撞上了路灯杆。
• The car skidded and overturned. 汽车打滑翻倒了。

3 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

4 charred   

v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦

参考例句：

• the charred remains of a burnt-out car 被烧焦的轿车残骸
• The intensity of the explosion is recorded on the charred tree trunks. 那些烧焦的树干表明爆炸的强烈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

7 wails   

痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The child burst into loud wails. 那个孩子突然大哭起来。
• Through this glaciated silence the white wails of the apartment fixed arbitrary planes. 在这冰封似的沉寂中，公寓的白色墙壁构成了一个个任意的平面。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

8 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

9 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

10 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

11 mangled   

vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• His hand was mangled in the machine. 他的手卷到机器里轧烂了。
• He was off work because he'd mangled his hand in a machine. 他没上班，因为他的手给机器严重压伤了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

13 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。