民航飞机定位规则落后时代

For the second time in 2017, a passenger plane vanished midflight. In March, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared and the most expensive search mission in recent aviation history followed. It is still missing. On Sunday, AirAsia Flight 8501 disappeared off Indonesia. It took about two days for search teams to find debris.

2017年，先后有两架客机在飞行途中消失。3月，马来西亚航空(Malaysia Airlines)370航班失联，触发了近年航空史上最昂贵的搜索行动。370航班至今仍然杳无踪迹。上周日，亚洲航空(AirAsia)8501航班在飞离印度尼西亚后失踪。搜救队伍用了大约两天时间才找到了飞机残骸。

These similar incidents suggest that the current system for tracking aircraft — via ground-based radar and satellite — is insufficient. It’s shocking that two planes carrying hundreds of people could go missing, especially given advances in wireless communication.

两起相似的事故意味着，目前用于追踪飞机位置的方法——通过地面的雷达以及卫星——并不足以完成任务。尤其是考虑到无线通讯领域的种种进步，两架载有数百名乘客的飞机居然会失踪，这让人感到不可思议。

From a technological standpoint, it’s possible to outfit aircraft to stream flight data in real time. Carriers have been reluctant to do so because in-flight disasters are rare, and streaming is costly. But shaken by the loss of Flight 370, the aviation industry and aviation regulators are coming around to the need for change.

从技术角度讲，让飞机实时传输飞行数据流是可能的。航空公司一直不愿意这么做，是因为飞行途中发生事故的情况比较少见，而实时传输数据流价格不菲。但在马航370航班失联带来的震惊中，航空业和航空监管机构开始意识到改变的必要性。

In the spring, the Malaysia Transport Ministry issued a preliminary report on Flight 370 with a single recommendation: that the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization examine the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking.

今年春天，马来西亚交通部(Transport Ministry)发布了关于马航370航班的初步报告，报告中唯一的建议是：希望联合国下属的国际民用航空组织(International Civil Aviation Organization)评估引进实时追踪标准的安全益处。

The International Air Transport Association has released its own voluntary standard: Within one year’s time, all aircraft should report their positions at least every 15 minutes, and more often during emergencies. There’s reason to suspect that the 15-minute standard, which is far short of live-streaming, is too lax. In 2009, Air France Flight 447 disappeared over the Atlantic. Search crews found debris within days, but it took nearly two years to recover the “black box” containing flight data. That aircraft had been programmed to transmit its position every 10 minutes.

国际航空运输协会(International Air Transport Association)公布了航空公司可以自行决定是否采用的标准：在一年时间里，应该将所有飞机升级到至少每15分钟报告一次飞机的所在位置，在紧急情况下则须更加频繁。人们有理由质疑，这个15分钟的标准过于宽松，与实时传输的标准相去甚远。2009年，法国航空(Air France)447航班在大西洋上空失去踪迹。搜救人员在几天后发现了飞机残骸，但却用了近两年时间才找到存有飞行数据的“黑匣子”。这架飞机设定的程序是，每10分钟发送一次位置信息。

The 15-minute standard also lags behind the most advanced airlines, like AirAsia, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, has already started modifying some of its aircraft to send position updates every 2 minutes. But the plane that disappeared had not been upgraded.

15分钟一次的标准也落后于多数先进的航空公司，包括亚航。据《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)报道，亚航已经开始要求一些飞机改为每两分钟发送一次最新的位置信息。但失踪的这架飞机不在其列。

Some carriers have objected to the I.A.T.A.’s upgrade schedule as too aggressive. For Flight 8501, the process was too slow.

一些航空公司反对国际航空运输协会的升级计划，认为它操之过急。而对于亚航8501航班来说，这个进程却太慢了。