澳大利亚：MH370乘客疑为窒息致死

The passengers and crew of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 most likely died from suffocation and coasted lifelessly into the ocean on autopilot, a new report released by Australian officials on Thursday said.

In a 55-page report, the Australian Transport Safety Board outlined how investigators had arrived at this conclusion after comparing the conditions on the flight with previous disasters, although it contained no new evidence from within the jetliner.

The report narrowed down the possible final resting place from thousands of possible routes, while noting the absence of communications and the steady flight path and a number of other key abnormalities in the course of the ill-fated flight.

"Given these observations, the final stages of the unresponsive crew/hypoxia event type appeared to best fit the available evidence for the final period of MH370's flight when it was heading in a generally southerly direction," the ATSB report said.

All of that suggested that the plane most likely crashed farther south into the Indian Ocean than previously thought, Australian officials also said, leading them to announce a shift farther south within the prior search area.

The new analysis comes more than 100 days after the Boeing 777, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared on March 8 shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.

Investigators say what little evidence they have to work with suggests the plane was deliberately diverted thousands of kilometers from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean.

The search was narrowed in April after a series of acoustic pings thought to be from the plane's black box recorders were heard along a final arc where analysis of satellite data put its last location.

But a month later, officials conceded the wreckage was not in that concentrated area, some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) off the northwest coast of Australia, and the search area would have to be expanded.

"The new priority area is still focused on the seventh arc, where the aircraft last communicated with satellite. We are now shifting our attention to an area further south along the arc," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told reporters in Canberra.

Truss said the area was determined after a review of satellite data, early radar information and aircraft performance limits after the plane diverted across the Malaysian peninsula and headed south into one of the remotest areas of the planet.

"It is highly, highly likely that the aircraft was on autopilot otherwise it could not have followed the orderly path that has been identified through the satellite sightings," Truss said.

The next phase of the search is expected to start in August and take a year, covering some 60,000 sq km at a cost of A$60 million ($56 million) or more. The search is already the most expensive in aviation history.

The new priority search area is around 2,000 km west of Perth, a stretch of isolated ocean frequently lashed by storm force winds and massive swells.

Two vessels, one Chinese and one from Dutch engineering company Fugro , are currently mapping the sea floor along the arc, where depths exceed 5,000 meters in parts.

A tender to find a commercial operator to conduct the sea floor search closes on Monday.

据雅虎资讯报道，26日，澳大利亚官方发布最新报告称，马航失踪航班MH370搭载的乘客和机组人员极有可能在飞机坠落前就已死于窒息，而飞机随后在自动驾驶模式下坠入印度洋。

在这份长达55页的报告中，澳大利亚运输安全局表示，调查人员将MH370的状况与此前失事的飞机相比较，虽然在飞机本身方面没有新发现，但得出了上述结论。

该报告从上千条预估路线中锁定了MH370可能坠落的位置。此外，该报告还列出了航班失联、航线确定等一系列失常状况。“据观测，现有证据与失联机组人员最后阶段处于缺氧状态的猜想极为吻合，而当时飞机正向南航行。”

以上种种表明，MH370在印度洋内的坠落位置极可能比此前猜想的更偏南。澳方官员也表示，他们的优先搜索区域也会随之更向南深入。

此份分析报告据事发已超过100天。3月8日，这架波音777型号飞机，预计从吉隆坡飞往北京，搭载乘客和机组人员共239人，起飞不久便已失踪。

调查人员称，他们目前并未掌握飞机最终坠落于印度洋前曾被人为转向，离开既定航线几千千米的证据。

4月，一系列可能由MH370黑匣子发出的声音信号被监测到，位置在最后一条弧线上，同时此处也是人造卫星数据最后一次确定的位置，搜索范围由此得以缩小。然而，一个月后，官方发布消息称，在距澳大利亚西北海岸线约1600千米的海域内并未发现飞机残骸，搜索范围不得不扩大。

澳大利亚副总理沃伦·特拉斯称：“最新优先搜索区域仍锁定在第七弧线上，即MH370最后与人造卫星联络的区域。我们不会继续沿该弧线向南推进搜索范围。”特拉斯表示，该区域的确定参考了人造卫星数据、早先雷达信息以及飞机性能限制，飞机飞过马来半岛后转向，向全球最南端前行。“MH370极有可能处于自由驾驶状态，否则飞机不可能沿有序路线前行，而人造卫星记录的数据也已辅助确定了该路线。”

下阶段搜索预计将于8月展开，为期一年，覆盖约6万平方千米，花费至少6千万澳币（5千600万美元）。此次搜索已经成为航空史上花费最多的一次。最新优先搜索区域在珀斯以西约2000千米处，此片海域常有大风大浪。

分别来自中国和荷兰工程公司辉固的两艘船目前正沿第七弧线搜寻海底，部分区域水深超过5000米。而30日，招募公司承保海底搜寻工作的投标会就将结束。