全美航空公司1549航班在哈德遜河上奇跡般迫降成功，遺憾的是，國內(nèi)的報道在第一時間居然全部都是用“墜毀”，而且在這個標(biāo)題下接的是“155人全部生還”。迫降和墜毀的區(qū)別還是很大的，迫降失敗會造成墜毀，墜毀了也就不用迫降了。這條新聞有兩點(diǎn)值得大書特書，一是機(jī)組在水面迫降成功，顯示了良好的訓(xùn)練素質(zhì)、高超的駕駛技巧和強(qiáng)悍的心理素質(zhì)。這樣的飛行員，的確可以稱之為“飛行員中的飛行員”。二是飛機(jī)兩臺發(fā)動機(jī)被鳥擊，在完全失去動力的情況下飛行員靠飄降成功迫降，一方面證明了機(jī)長的駕駛技術(shù)，一方面也證明了A320客機(jī)設(shè)計合理，空氣動力學(xué)性能優(yōu)良，因而有足夠的滯空能力。無論是飛行員還是飛行器，在這一次可堪載入飛行教材的迫降過程中，都體現(xiàn)了足夠的專業(yè)水準(zhǔn)。
以下，是《紐約時報》的一篇報道，講述了當(dāng)時在空中的情形。我以加注的方式，講解其中的航空部分。
《1549 to Tower: ‘We’re Gonna End Up in the Hudson’ 》
【注】Tower，機(jī)場塔臺。這個標(biāo)題是在模仿空地對話，而這句話也的確是錄音上記載的機(jī)組最后一次空地通話內(nèi)容。
By MATTHEW L. WALD and AL BAKER
Published: January 17, 2009
Just seconds after the first officer of US Airways Flight 1549, leaving La Guardia Airport and bound for Charlotte, N.C., pointed the nose of his jet into the sky, he noticed that there were birds on the right side — “in a perfect line formation.”
【注】first officer，副駕駛。按照規(guī)定，坐在右座，所以他注意到了右側(cè)舷窗外的鳥群。
The plane’s captain, who had been busy watching the cockpit instruments, managing the radios and looking at charts, then looked up.
【注】Captain，機(jī)長。剛剛起飛的幾分鐘他非常忙碌，需要做大量交叉檢查和監(jiān)控工作。
The windscreen, he told investigators, was filled with birds. The plane, at roughly 3,000 feet, was going at least 250 miles an hour. The captain’s first instinct, he said, was to duck.
【注】發(fā)生鳥擊時，飛機(jī)的高度僅僅是3000英尺，航速250英里/小時。在這樣的速度和高度下，飛行員對飛行器的異常情況反映時間極短。
Seconds later, flight attendants aboard the plane reported hearing a thud or a thump — a sound they had never heard before. The engines went quiet. And the plane’s captain, Chesley B. Sullenberger III, smelled something.
【注】發(fā)生鳥擊，往往是乘務(wù)員最先發(fā)現(xiàn)撞擊聲，尤其是發(fā)生在機(jī)翼上的鳥擊，乘務(wù)長會用艙內(nèi)送話器向機(jī)長報告異常情況。駕駛艙內(nèi)的空氣和客艙內(nèi)空氣采取彼此獨(dú)立的空氣循環(huán)系統(tǒng)，以保證駕駛艙內(nèi)有最新鮮的空氣，所以機(jī)長最先聞到了肉味。
“Burning birds,” he told investigators.
Since Flight 1549 landed — safely but spectacularly — in the Hudson River on Thursday, no one had heard the accounts of the two pilots who had helped keep 153 other people alive. On Saturday night, Kathryn O. Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board gave the first version of what the pilots saw, said and did in the course of executing one of the more remarkable safe endings in American aviation history.
【注】NTSB，國家安全運(yùn)輸委員會。有趣的是，這一航班的機(jī)長也是委員會成員。
The account offered by the safety agency — based on interviews conducted Saturday with the plane’s crew — had numerous startling elements, not the least of which was the fact that Captain Sullenberger, who has been hailed by the mayor and the president for his skill and bravery, was not at the controls at takeoff. Instead, the plane’s first officer, 49-year-old Jeffrey B. Skiles, was in control; a 23-year veteran of the airline, he had just 35 hours of flying time in this particular kind of craft, the Airbus A320.
【注】鳥擊發(fā)生時，是副駕駛Skiles控制飛機(jī)，在這一型號的A320飛機(jī)上，他僅有35小時的飛行經(jīng)驗。
But as soon as the plane encountered the birds and the engines quit nearly simultaneously, Captain Sullenberger, 58, took over.
“My aircraft,” he announced to his first officer, using the standard phrasing and protocol drilled into airline crews.
【注】My aircraft，很酷，不是么？機(jī)長用最簡短的指令要求飛機(jī)置于他的完全控制之下。
“Your aircraft,” Mr. Skiles responded.
【注】副駕駛復(fù)頌命令，移交控制權(quán)給機(jī)長。
With little thrust, and with the plane’s airspeed falling sharply, Captain Sullenberger lowered the nose to keep his plane from falling out of the sky. And he set his co-pilot to work at moving through a three-page checklist of procedures for restarting both the engines.
【注】機(jī)長降低機(jī)頭高度，然后要求副駕駛打開重啟發(fā)動機(jī)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)程序的飛行檢查單。在飛行員的飛行資料箱里，有各種各樣的飛行程序，上面有各種緊急情況下的操作指示。當(dāng)發(fā)生意外情況時，要求飛行員按照檢查單上的內(nèi)容，一項項操作，以免飛行員因為緊張而疏忽或者忽略了某些重要的操作步驟。機(jī)長此時已經(jīng)完成了對飛機(jī)狀態(tài)的判斷：雙發(fā)停車。因此，要求副駕駛找出重啟發(fā)動機(jī)的飛行檢查單，逐項操作。
The checklist, investigators said, is intended for planes that are in distress at much higher altitudes — like 35,000 feet. At such heights, of course, there is more time to restart.
【注】非常不利的情況出現(xiàn)了，重啟發(fā)動機(jī)的程序要求飛機(jī)在35000英尺以上的高度。這樣駕駛員才有充裕的時間執(zhí)行標(biāo)準(zhǔn)程序，重啟發(fā)動機(jī)。而1549號航班高度3000英尺，沒有時間執(zhí)行程序。
As the co-pilot worked desperately on the checklist, the crew radioed the air traffic controller, who had just cleared them to climb to 15,000 feet.
【注】地面已經(jīng)獲悉了飛機(jī)遭遇鳥擊造成發(fā)動機(jī)停車的現(xiàn)狀，塔臺要求飛機(jī)爬升至15000英尺高度。但是他們并不知道，飛機(jī)其實(shí)已經(jīng)失去了動力。
They discussed returning to La Guardia, but the plane was “too low, too slow,” and besides, there were “too many buildings, too populated an area.”
“We’re unable, we may end up in the Hudson,” one of them, probably Mr. Skiles, said to the controller, according to the safety agency.
【注】副駕駛直接告訴塔臺，他們不能執(zhí)行爬升至15000英尺的指令，或許要在哈德遜河上了結(jié)了。
The two veteran flight attendants who had heard the thump or thud told investigators that after the engines failed, the cabin was silent.
“It was like being in a library,” Ms. Higgins said.
The pilots saw Teterboro Airport ahead across the Hudson, and they considered going there, but Captain Sullenberger, who is also licensed as a glider pilot, had the same problem: too many miles and not enough power, in the form of altitude or engine thrust.
【注】在空中，飛行員已經(jīng)目視能見哈德遜河對岸的Teterboro機(jī)場，理想狀況是把飛機(jī)飛到那里去迫降。但是飛機(jī)高度太低，速度不夠，在沒有抵達(dá)備降機(jī)場前就會墜毀。幸運(yùn)的是，機(jī)長居然也是glider pilot，滑翔機(jī)教練。這意味著他熟悉在無動力情況下駕駛飛機(jī)飄降的技巧。
The crew worried that in such a populated area, the outcome could be “catastrophic,” the safety agency said.
One of the two pilots, probably the co-pilot, told the controller: “We can’t do it. We’re gonna end up in the Hudson.”
【注】無法飛往備降機(jī)場，我們就要在哈德遜河玩完了。文章的標(biāo)題就是這一句話，上面說過一次，那次說的是“may end up”，這次是“gonna end up”，不再是“或許”，而是“將要”。
“That is the last communiqué of the flight,” Ms. Higgins said.
【注】地面人員最恐怖的一刻到來了，駕駛員進(jìn)入無線電靜默狀態(tài)，他們已經(jīng)無暇和地面通話。幾分鐘后通訊恢復(fù)，那么塔臺里就是一片狂喜的歡呼。但是，如果一直靜默下去，塔臺內(nèi)就會是死一般的寂靜，唯有值班管制員孤零零的聲音會反復(fù)呼叫飛機(jī)航班號，要求回話。
But it was not the end of the crew’s task. Captain Sullenberger saw a boat on the river, and remembered from his training that if a plane has to ditch, it should be done near a vessel.
【注】水面緊急迫降要求降落地點(diǎn)附件有船只，因為飛機(jī)可能會發(fā)生解體，即便安全降落，也會很快沉沒。有船只意味著有獲救可能。
The crew lowered the flaps, movable devices on the wing that allow the plane to fly more slowly, now essential because the length of their “runway” was not an issue but force at impact certainly would be.
【注】機(jī)長放下襟翼，在失去動力的情況下，這是他手頭為數(shù)不多的幾種控制飛機(jī)飛行姿態(tài)和速度設(shè)備。
The flaps run on hydraulic power, and the hydraulics were supposed to run off the now bird-stuffed engines. But the Airbus A320 has a “ram air turbine,” essentially a little propeller that drops down into the wind automatically in certain conditions and produces electricity; it may have provided the energy to allow the crew to lower the flaps.
【注】控制襟翼需要液壓系統(tǒng)，但是鳥擊引擎，造成泄漏，無法通過液壓系統(tǒng)操控襟翼。幸運(yùn)的是，A320有一個ram air turbine，簡單說就是一個很小的風(fēng)力發(fā)電機(jī)。在這種時候，它會自動從機(jī)腹放出，風(fēng)吹動葉片帶動轉(zhuǎn)子發(fā)電，供應(yīng)駕駛艙必要的最低用電，以電力取代液壓系統(tǒng)控制襟翼。
Soon there was a command from the cockpit to the cabin to “brace.” To the two flight attendants in front, it felt like a hard landing; to the flight attendant in the rear, it felt much harder; items in the galley came loose and were thrown around the plane.
【注】迫降接地前，機(jī)長從駕駛艙接駁送話器，發(fā)布迫降指令“brace”，要求所有客艙成員按照事先交代的姿勢雙手抱頭，雙膝分開，伏低，準(zhǔn)備迎接撞擊。
In the water, the electricity died. One of the pilots opened the cockpit door and ordered, “Evacuate,” but the flight attendants and passengers were already doing so.
【注】Evacuate標(biāo)準(zhǔn)程序，標(biāo)準(zhǔn)緊急撤離程序。乘務(wù)員和飛行員都接受過大量類似訓(xùn)練，啟動程序之后乘務(wù)員會打開緊急出口，釋放橡皮艇，要求旅客穿上救生衣快速撤離機(jī)艙。
One overeager passenger rushed to the back of the plane and tried to open the rear door, even though it was already at least partly under water. She got it open a crack and water started flowing in, but the flight attendant there got her pointed to the front.
The flight attendant in the rear — not identified on Saturday — was soon in water up to her chest. She grabbed a life preserver and pushed forward, exited the plane and got into a raft, and felt woozy. She had a gash in one leg all the way into the muscle, but the water was so cold she was too numb to feel it.
Early indications, as described by the safety agency, were that the cockpit and cabin crews got through an emergency “by the book,” but it was an event that exists almost entirely in books alone; big planes seldom come down in water in a controlled way.
Just how the plane came down in the Hudson emerged on Saturday in videos kept or obtained by local and federal authorities. They were released, along with recordings of the first 911 calls.
In the briefing on Saturday night, Ms. Higgins said investigators on the Hudson believed they had identified the location of the one engine that had been torn off the plane. They hoped to confirm that in the coming hours and eventually retrieve it.
Late Saturday night, crews at Battery Park City had rigged the plane — weighing an estimated one million pounds — and lifted it out of the Hudson. They planned to load it onto a barge for investigators.
The black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder that will serve as electronic witnesses to the event, had been removed from the plane by 1 a.m. on Sunday to be taken to Washington, transportation officials said.
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