評論
打印
Chapter Seven: The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes.
第七章 造成飛機失事的民族理論
"CAPTAIN, THE WEATHER RADAR HAS HELPED US A LOT"
“機長，氣象雷達為我們提供了很大幫助。”
On the morning of August 5, 1997, the captain of Korean Air flight 801 woke at 6 a.m..
時間回溯到1997年8月5日的早晨，大韓航空公司801航班的機長6點鐘從睡夢中醒來。
His family would later tell investigators that he went to the gym for an hour, then came home and studied the flight plan for that evening's journey to Guam.
后來，他的家人告訴調查人員，他在健身中心鍛煉一個小時后，回到家里，研究那晚飛往關島的飛行計劃。
He napped and ate lunch.
之后，他稍做休息，并吃了午餐。
At three in the afternoon, he left for Seoul, departing early enough, his wife said, to continue his preparations at Kimpo International Airport.
據他的太太講，下午3點，他就提前啟程離開了首爾，前往金浦國際機場，繼續為晚上的行程做準備工作。
He had been a pilot with Korean Air for almost four years after coming over from the Korean Air Force.
在從韓國空軍退役之后，他已經在大韓航空公司飛行了4年，
He had eighty-nine hundred hours of flight time, including thirty-two hundred hours of experience in jumbo jets.
有著8900個小時的飛行經驗，其中包括3200個小時噴氣式客機的飛行經驗。
A few months earlier, he had been given a flight safety award by his airline for successfully handling a jumbo-jet engine failure at low altitude.
幾個月以前，由于成功地控制了一架在低空飛行中引擎失靈的大型噴氣式客機，他被授予安全飛行獎章。
He was forty-two years old and in excellent health.
他42歲且身體健康。
At 7 p.m., the captain, his first officer, and the flight engineer met and collected the trip's paper work.
晚上7點，機長同副駕以及飛行工程師見面并準備了飛行文件。
They would be flying a Boeing 747, a model known in the aviation world as the "classic."
他們即將駕駛航空史上聞名遐邇的“經典之作”——一架波音747。
The aircraft was in perfect working order.
該飛機的各個部件運作良好且適于飛行，
It had once been the Korean presidential plane.
并曾一度作為韓國總統的專機。
Flight 801 departed the gate at ten thirty in the evening, and was airborne twenty minutes later.
晚上10點30分，801航班離開登機口，20分鐘后開始了它的旅程，
Takeoff was without incident.
起飛一切正常。
Just before one-thirty in the morning, the plane broke out the clouds and the flight crew glimpsed lights off in the distance.
就在凌晨1點30分，飛機沖出云層，飛機上的空乘人員瞥了一眼來自外面的燈光。
