Red Herrings and Overlooked Clues in Plane Search

Red Herrings and Overlooked Clues in Plane Search

飞机搜寻工作中被忽视的线索和误导

Red Herrings：转移注意力的话题；与事实不相干的论点

Overlooked：忽视 忽略

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More than a month after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,searchers pledged to scour the ocean for the plane’s black boxes.But as the batteries powering the data and voice recorders’ sonic beacons fade,so do the chances that the airliner’s wreckage and the 239 bodies of the passengers and crew on board will be found.Several missteps,red herrings and bureaucratic delays have thwarted the search.

马航370失踪已经一月有余，搜寻人员承诺会对飞机上的黑匣子进行全力搜索。然而随着为记录数据和声音的声学信标供电的电池电量渐渐流逝，找到飞机残骸以及该航班上239名乘客及机组人员遗体的希望也日益渺茫。而一些错误的决策、误导以及官僚导致的的拖延，都使得搜寻工作收到妨碍。都对搜寻工作造成了妨碍。

pledged：承诺 保证 pledge to help/pledge support

scour：四处搜寻 scour an area of 100 square miles 费力擦洗 scour the sink

beacon：烽火; 灯塔 信号浮标

airliner：班机 大型客机

wreckage：残骸（飞机 船 车 楼）

misstep：差错 失误 失策

bureaucratic：官僚的

thwart： 阻挠 挫败

When the plane was last in contact with air traffic controllers,at 1:19 a.m. on March 8,about 40 minutes after takeoff ,the communication was routine.Minutes later,the plane's transponder,which signals its identity,altitude and speed to ground radar,failed or was shut off without transmitting any indication to ground control that the plane was veering west.With only that information available,searchers concentrated initially on the area where the plane was when it lost contact-the Gulf of Thailand and East China .

飞机最后一次与空管保持联系是在4月8日凌晨1点19分，也就是飞机起飞的40分钟后，飞机通讯正常。而就在数分钟以后，用于对地面雷达标志飞机身份、高度和速度等信息的雷达收发机失效或被关闭，无法向地面传达任何信息，而此时飞机已经向西偏航。根据仅有的信息，搜寻人员的工作一开始主要集中在飞机失去联系的地方，也就是泰国湾以及中国东部。

transponder：异频雷达收发机

veer：改变航（方）向  veer off the runway/in a certain direction 改变立场 veer from one's view

Gulf of Thailand：泰国湾

The plane veered off its flight path just as responsibility for guiding it was passing from Malaysian to Vietnamese ground controllers.The cockpit signed off with air traffic controllers in Malaysia but never connected with the Vietnamese.This may have caused delays in even recognizing that the plane was missing.Malaysia military radar operators detected an unidentified  plane flying erratically westward but did not take action.

就在飞机即将从马来西亚的管控区域进入越南的管控区域时，飞机突然偏离了航道。（联系事件事实，这里的as应该表示“当...的时候”，而不是just as“如同...一般”）机组脱离马来西亚管控以后并没有与越方取得联系，这也许是造成延误的原因，甚至延误了人们开始意识到飞机已经失踪的时间。马来西亚军方雷达曾侦测到有不明飞行物体在向西方向无规律的飞行，但并未采取任何行动。

cockpit：(飞行员或赛车手的) 座舱

erratically：in an erratic unpredictable manner 不定地；不规律地

Days passed before it was revealed that radar signals had showed the missing plane experiencing changes in altitude and veering drastically off course more than once.Some search efforts were then redirected to the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea, where the traces ended,but more days passed before attention was completely diverted from the original search area.

数日后，有消息透露表示失踪的飞机曾数次改变高度并严重偏离航道。此后，一部分的搜救力量被重新布置在马六甲海峡和安达曼海区域，也就是线索消失的地方，直到又过了数日以后，才将所有的注意力转移到此处。

drastically：彻底地 激烈地 大幅的 烈性的

course：航向

Strait of Malacca：马六甲海峡

Andaman Sea：安达曼海（印度洋）

divert：转移（注意力）

句型：1.Days passed before比说After更地道

2.A power fade, so do the chance of ... :fade用的很好