Download
Searchers for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 must gear up their hunt for the aircraft's black box, an aviation expert said as an Australian ship carrying equipment to locate the device set sail on Monday.
It is presumed that the black box will run out of battery power around April 7, or April 12 at the latest, and its signal will then vanish, said Wang Ya'nan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine.
"I don't want to be pessimistic," Wang said, "but the fact is that without the signal, it will be virtually impossible to find it."
In the case of the search for Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, nearly two years were required for retrieval of the black box, even though the crash site was located within a week of the accident.
"The French detected the signal sent from the black box before it lost power and determined the approximate site," Wang said. "The reason so much time was needed to raise it was that the water's depth made it very difficult to finalize the precise location."
Even if every nation involved in the search put all their deep-sea submersibles into the operation, there would not be enough of them to cover the enormous swath of ocean where the small device could be, he said.
To quickly narrow the search for MH370, searchers need to find surface debris, he said.
The black box consists of two separate pieces of equipment: a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder. The boxes are usually kept in the tail of an aircraft.
Each black box is fitted with an underwater locator beacon that starts emitting a pulse if its sensor touches water, meaning it "pings" once per second for 30 days before the battery runs out.
Even though Malaysian officials declared that MH370 had crashed, no physical evidence has been found, despite a massive hunt involving seven countries. The jet carried 239 passengers and 12 crew members.
Hopes raised by debris sightings have repeatedly been crushed as the items turned out to be random sea junk such as fishing gear.
Questions:
1. When is it presumed the black box flight recorder will run out of battery power?
2. How long did it take to get the Air France Flight 447 black box from the Atlantic Ocean?
3. How many pieces of equipment are in a black box?
Answers:
1. Around April 7, or April 12 at the latest.
2. Nearly two years.
3. Two.
About the broadcaster:
Anne Ruisi is an editor at China Daily online with more than 30 years of experience as a newspaper editor and reporter. She has worked at newspapers in the U.S., including The Birmingham News in Alabama and City Newspaper of Rochester, N.Y.
实用英语:如何用英语砍价
2011年实用口语练习:In the library 在图书馆
实用盘点:赞美他人时必备口语
口语情景对话:走遍美国精选 当仁不让 ACT 3 - 1
口语:“血肉之躯”用英语怎么说?
英语流行语:你跟谁“合得来”?
实用口语:英语口语要素精选 18
实用口语: Nicole's Close Election
新年英语口语:与“年”有关的英语表达
新东方英语口语开口篇:描述外貌(4)
2011年实用口语练习:当死神来临
看2012年放假安排:学节日英语对话
新东方英语口语开口篇:日常活动(6)
口语情景对话:走遍美国精选 当仁不让 ACT 1 - 3
地道口语:职场必备的五个简单句子
口语情景对话:一个真正的斯图尔特家的后代ACT 1 - 3
实用口语:关于兔子的英语口语
英语口语主题:交际英语热门话题47个(21--生日派对)
实用英语口语:“熬夜”的各种英文说法
实用口语情景轻松学:说一说旅行要准备的东西
英文情景对话:我想吃真正的中国菜
新东方英语口语开口篇:Age 年龄(4)
实用口语情景轻松学:你最喜欢哪个季节?
2011年实用口语练习:背后捅刀
新东方英语口语开口篇:描述外貌(3)
实用口语情景轻松学:你这儿卖内存吗?
节日英语口语:十一句话搞定圣诞礼物
疯狂口语要素精选 7
巧用“插入语”争取思考的时间
老外“精神不好”时会说些什么
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |