好英语网尼泊尔空难：她继承丈夫遗志成为飞行员，却同样死于坠机
When her husband, a pilot for a small Nepali airline, died in a 2006 plane crash, Anju Khatiwada made a vow: She would continue his dream.
她的丈夫是尼泊尔一家小型航空公司的飞行员，2006年他在一次飞机事故中丧生后，安朱·卡蒂瓦达发誓：她将延续他的梦想。
In the face of family opposition, she gave up her nursing career and pursued years of pilot training in the United States, raising her daughter with the help of her parents. Upon her return to Nepal, she took up flying for the same company, Yeti Airlines, in 2010, rising to the rank of captain after racking up thousands of hours in the air.
不顾家人反对，她放弃了护士工作，在美国接受多年飞行员培训，在父母帮助下抚养女儿。回到尼泊尔后，她于2010年开始为同一家公司雪人航空工作，累积了数千小时的飞行里程后，她晋升为机长。
周一，救援人员正在尼泊尔博卡拉寻找前一天雪人航空公司飞机失事遇难者的遗体。机上共有72人。
On Sunday, she met the same fate as her husband. The twin-engine propeller plane she was co-piloting crashed about a mile from the landing strip at a newly built airport in Pokhara, a Himalayan vacation destination. Of the 72 people on board, the bodies of 69 had been recovered by Monday, making it the country’s deadliest air disaster in decades.
周日，她重复了丈夫的命运。她担任副驾驶的双引擎螺旋桨飞机在喜马拉雅山度假胜地博卡拉一处新建机场距离起降跑道1.6公里处坠毁。机上共有72人，其中69人的遗体已于周一被找到，这是尼泊尔数十年来最为致命的一场空难。
“Anju’s father had asked her not to choose the pilot profession,” said Gopal Regmi, a relative and close friend of her father’s. “After her husband’s tragic death, she was determined to become a pilot.”
“安朱的父亲曾劝告她不要以飞行员为职业，”她父亲的亲戚兼密友戈帕尔·瑞格米说。“丈夫不幸去世后，她决心成为飞行员。”
The family’s twin calamities are part of a deadly pattern in Nepal. The small South Asian nation has suffered a series of crashes and other aviation safety lapses in recent decades, a troubling record attributed to difficult terrain and unpredictable weather, as well as inadequate regulation, aging fleets and lagging technical capacity.
这个家庭遭遇的两场灾难都是由尼泊尔的一种致命模式带来的。近几十年来，这个南亚小国出现了许多坠机事故和其他航空安全漏洞，这些令人不安的纪录要归因于复杂地形和多变天气，以及监管不足、机群老化和技术能力落后。
Nepal’s government appointed a five-member committee to investigate the latest crash, and the aircraft’s flight data recorder was recovered on Monday. The cause of the disaster was unclear; aviation experts cautioned that only an inquiry could establish the exact reason that the plane, built about 15 years ago by the French-Italian manufacturer ATR, went down.
尼泊尔政府任命了一个五人委员会调查此次坠机事件，并于周一找到了黑匣子。事故原因尚不清楚；航空专家警告称，只有启动调查才能确定飞机坠毁的确切原因，这架飞机是大约15年前由法国-意大利制造商ATR生产的。
But experts said the possible causes, based on video captured moments before the crash, could range from engine failure to a sudden loss of control by the pilot. The video, taken by eyewitnesses in the residential area around the Pokhara airport, showed one wing of the ATR-72 drop suddenly as the plane descended in clear skies. It then plunged into a gorge and erupted in fire and smoke.
但专家表示，根据坠机前片刻拍摄的视频，从引擎故障到飞行员突然失去控制都有可能是失事原因。这段视频是在博卡拉机场附近居民区中的目击者拍摄的，它显示这架ATR-72型飞机在晴朗的天空下降时，一侧机翼突然掉落。随后飞机坠入峡谷，爆发出火光和浓烟。
Another video, a livestream on Facebook, was filmed inside the aircraft as it approached the runway and passengers regained phone signals. It was broadcast by an Indian passenger, Sonu Jaiswal, who was traveling to a revered Hindu shrine and seeing sights around Nepal with three friends from the same district, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where they lived.
另一段视频是Facebook上的直播，是在飞机接近跑道、乘客手机信号恢复时在机舱内拍摄的。直播这段视频的是印度乘客索努·贾斯瓦尔，他与来自印度北方邦的三位同乡友人一同乘机，准备前往一处备受推崇的印度教圣地，游览尼泊尔各地的景点。
In the 90-second livestream, Mr. Jaiswal, who worked as a liquor salesman, is shown wearing a yellow sweater. He and his friends can be seen exulting in the landing excitement before the aircraft swings sharply to one side. Cries are briefly heard before flames take over the images.
在这段90秒的直播视频中，酒水销售员贾斯瓦尔身穿一件黄色毛衣。可以看到他和他的朋友在着陆之前兴高采烈，而后机身急剧偏转。在火焰笼罩画面之前，能短暂地听到哭喊。
“Sonu was showing it live on Facebook. His mobile must have been burned when it stopped,” said his friend Vishal Kushwaha, who was supposed to have been on the tour but dropped out at the last minute because of a family illness. “They were supposed to come back today.”
“索努在Facebook上做了直播。直播停下肯定是因为他的手机被烧毁了，”他的朋友维沙尔·库什瓦哈说，他本来也要参加这场旅行，但在最后一刻因家人生病取消了行程。“他们本该今天回来。”
Mr. Jaiswal’s father, Rajendra Prasad Jaiswal, who was on his way to Nepal to identify the body, said he learned of the crash from his son’s Facebook page. The younger Mr. Jaiswal leaves behind his wife, a 4-year-old daughter and an 8-month-old son.
贾斯瓦尔的父亲拉金德拉·普拉萨德·贾斯瓦尔正前往尼泊尔认领遗体，他说自己是从儿子的Facebook主页上得知坠机消息的。贾斯瓦尔的遗属包括妻子、四岁的女儿和八个月大的儿子。
The passengers on the plane included 53 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans and one person each from Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland. There were also four Nepali crew members.
机上乘客包括53名尼泊尔人、五名印度人、四名俄罗斯人、两名韩国人、以及澳大利亚、阿根廷、法国和爱尔兰公民各一人。机上还有四名尼泊尔籍机组成员。
Nepal has had more than 30 deadly air crashes since the early 1990s, according to the Aviation Safety Network. In May 2021, 22 people died in the crash of a plane operated by Tara Air — a Yeti sister airline — during a 20-minute flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, a trekking destination. In 2016, the crash of another Tara Air flight from Pokhara to Jomsom killed 23 people.
根据航空安全网的数据，自上世纪90年代初以来，尼泊尔已经发生了30多起致命空难。2021年5月，塔拉航空（雪人航空的姊妹公司）运营的一架飞机在从博卡拉飞往徒步景点佐莫索姆的20分钟航程中坠毁，造成22人死亡。2016年，塔拉航空另一架从博卡拉飞往佐莫索姆的航班坠毁，造成23人死亡。
The crashes have continued even as government officials have reported improvements in aviation standards. In 2009, a U.N. watchdog ranked Nepal’s implementation of safety protocols at 47 percent, well below the acceptable benchmark at the time, and Nepali airlines were blacklisted by the European Union. That ranking improved to 70 percent in 2022, when Nepal was last reviewed, the country’s civil aviation agency said.
尽管政府官员报告称航空标准有所改善，但坠机事件仍继续发生。2009年，联合国监察机构评定尼泊尔的安全协议执行率为47%，远低于当时可接受的基准，尼泊尔的航空公司也被欧盟列入黑名单。尼泊尔民航局表示，在2022年的最后一次评估中，尼泊尔的评定结果提升至70%。
But the audit, according to local news media reports, still expressed concerns over shortcomings in air navigation, investigation of incidents and the organizational structure necessary for implementing safety standards.
但据当地新闻媒体报道，该评估仍对空中领航、事故调查以及执行安全标准所需的组织架构方面的缺陷表示担忧。
Before the pandemic, Nepal had seen a steady expansion of air travel, both domestic and international. Tourism, which brings hundreds of millions of dollars into the country, one of the poorest in the region, has been picking up again after a sharp drop during the pandemic. Experts and officials have long been concerned about airports’ ability to meet the expanded demand.
尼泊尔国内和国际航空旅行在疫情之前一直稳步增长。旅游业为这个地区最贫困的国家之一带来数亿美元的收入，它在疫情期间大幅下降，现已迎来反弹。长久以来，专家和官员一直都担心该国机场是否有能力满足不断扩大的需求。
Nepal’s difficult terrain, with some of the highest mountain ranges in the world, means that a large share of air travel is carried out on small planes that travel between the country’s nearly four dozen small airports. Larger, international flights are mostly limited to Nepal’s main airport in the capital, Kathmandu. A third international airport was inaugurated this month in Pokhara, the site of Sunday’s crash, after construction funded by a $200 million Chinese loan.
尼泊尔地形复杂，有世界上海拔最高的山脉，这意味着大部分航空旅行需要使用小型飞机，它们在全国近40处小型机场之间来回穿梭。更大型的国际航班基本只在尼泊尔首都加德满都的主要机场起降。第三处国际机场由中国提供的2亿美元贷款资助建设，于本月在事故发生地博卡拉启用。
Bijender Siwach, a retired military pilot and the director general of Aviation Safety India, a nonprofit that conducts training and accident analysis, said that the videos of the accident suggested that weather and terrain were not factors, because the skies were clear and the aircraft was in close range of the landing strip.
从事飞行培训和事故分析的非营利组织“印度航空安全”的总负责人、退役军人飞行员比让德·西瓦奇说，视频表明，天气和地形并非事故因素，因为当时天空晴朗，飞机距离跑道也很近。
While definitive answers will come only from the investigation, Mr. Siwach said, the cause may have been mechanical failure or a case of human error that put the plane into what is known as a stall. In such a case, the aircraft slows down too much to be able to remain aloft and goes out of control.
西瓦奇表示，虽然只有通过调查才能得出确切答案，但事故原因可能是机械故障或人为失误，导致飞机陷入了所谓的失速状态。一旦失速，飞机会因为减速过快而无法继续飞行，从而失去控制。
“If it had happened at 5,000 or 10,000 feet, the aircraft could have recovered at 2,000 feet if the pilot had responded,” Mr. Siwach said. “But because the height was too low, 200 or 300 feet maybe, the pilot had no chance.”
“如果失速发生在超过1500米或3000米的高空，飞行员能做出反应的话，飞机可能在约600米的高度恢复航行，”西瓦奇说。“但因为高度太低，可能只有60到90米，飞行员没有机会做出反应。”
Officials from Yeti Airlines rejected earlier reports that the aircraft had lost communication with the air traffic control towers. Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesman for the airline, said the airport had given clearance to land.
雪人航空的官员否认了早前关于飞机与飞航管制塔失去联络的报道。该航空公司发言人苏达山·巴陶拉表示，机场当时已经批准降落。
“The incident happened about two kilometers away from the airport, which takes 15 to 20 seconds to land there,” he said.
“事故发生地距离机场约两公里，完成降落需要15到20秒，”他说。
Mr. Bartaula said both the captain and co-pilot had ample experience. Kamal K.C., the 58-year old captain, had 21,900 hours of flying time, while Ms. Khatiwada, 44, had 6,396 hours of flying history.
巴陶拉说，机长和副驾驶都经验丰富。58岁的机长卡迈勒·K·C的累积飞行时长为21900小时，44岁的卡蒂瓦达有6396小时。
Ms. Khatiwada’s husband, Dipak Pokhrel, was a military helicopter pilot before joining Yeti. The Twin Otter utility aircraft he was co-piloting in 2006 crashed just short of the landing strip in Jumla, killing the nine people on board.
卡蒂瓦达的丈夫迪帕克·波赫雷尔在入职雪人航空前曾是军用直升机飞行员。2006年，他担任副驾驶的“双水獭”通用飞机在久姆拉的机场跑道附近坠毁，机上九人遇难。
Their daughter, now an adult living in Canada, was just 6 when Mr. Pokhrel died, said the relative, Mr. Regmi.
他们的亲戚瑞格米说，波赫雷尔去世时，他们的女儿才六岁，现在她已经成年，在加拿大定居。
He recounted the story of what Ms. Khatiwada had said during her interview for the U.S. visa that would allow her to go for pilot training.
他回忆起卡蒂瓦达申请美国签证面试时说的话，当时她准备前往该国参加飞行员培训。
“I just want to wear the white uniform like my husband and work as a pilot,” she said, according to Mr. Regmi.
“我只想和我丈夫一样，穿上白色制服，当一名飞行员，”瑞格米表示，她这样说。
On Monday, photos of her in her pilot uniform circulated on social media with condolence messages.
周一，社交媒体上流传着她身穿飞行员制服的照片，网友纷纷致哀。