马航MH370残骸有了新线索？或位于南纬35度印度洋深处

There’s a particularly tantalising reason why the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may indeed be found inside the proposed new search area at 35 degrees south in the southern Indian Ocean.

马来西亚航空公司(MH370航班的残骸可能在南印度洋35度以南的新搜索区域内，为何会这样，有一个特别诱人的原因。

It’s the lack of any debris from the plane found on Australia’s west coast.

此前在澳大利亚西海岸上没有发现任何的残骸。

Other than a small towelette in Malaysia Airlines packaging found on a WA beach in 2015 — which may or may not have come from MH370 — every piece of debris known to have come from the missing plane washed up on the east coast of Africa, or nearby islands.

除了2015年发现的一小包印有马航公司标志的湿纸巾——而这包湿纸巾甚至都有可能不是MH370飞机上的东西。其他人们所知的每一件残骸，都被冲上了非洲东部海岸或是附近的岛屿。

This is significant, given Australian investigators believe there were five possible autopilot control modes the plane could have been on at the time it ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean.

这一点非常关键，因为澳大利亚调查人员认为，在飞机耗尽燃料并坠入海洋的时候，飞机也许有五种可能的自动驾驶控制模式。

Calculations based on four of those settings point to a crash site further south (36-39 degrees south) or further north (33-34 degrees south), where the ocean currents in the days after the plane disappeared ran in an easterly direction, and would be expected to wash at least some debris towards Australia.

调查员们基于其中四种设定参数进行计算，得出的结论是坠机地点有可能位于更南向的南纬36-39度，或是更北向的南纬33-34度。考虑到飞机失踪后的几天里洋流的走向为东向，因此至少有一些残骸会被冲到澳大利亚的海岸附近。

One source close to the investigation says only one of the five auto pilot settings — constant magnetic heading (CMH) — would lead to a crash site at 35S, where the ocean current at the time ran in the opposite direction, towards Africa.

一位调查的知情人士表示，五种自动驾驶飞行模式里，只有一种模式——磁航向（CMH）——会导致飞机坠入南纬35度的区域，而当时那个区域的洋流方向刚好相反，朝着非洲海岸而去。

Nevertheless, other evidence in the weeks and months after the plane disappeared — namely the satellite "pings" picked up from the aircraft by Britain’s Inmarsat satellite — prompted the Australian-led search team to focus on a 120,000-square-kilometre area around 36 degrees or further south, a search which ultimately proved fruitless.

不过，尽管如此，由于出现了别的证据——即飞机失踪的数月后，英国的国际海事卫星组织(Inmarsat) 的飞行器捕捉到的"pings"卫星信号，由澳大利亚带队的搜索队伍还是将搜索范围锁定在了南纬36度以及更南方大约12万平方公里的区域。不过，最后搜索还是无果而终。

Only now, since the examination of the various debris and studies on ocean drift patterns, has the likely wreck site shifted north to an area around 35 degrees south, straddling the imaginary line known as the "seventh arc" — which shows possible locations of the plane at the time of the seventh "ping".

直到现在，基于对飞机各类残骸的检查，以及围绕洋流流向模式开展的研究，才开始把坠机地点由原先的南纬36度向北转移，并指出南纬35度范围，跨越了一条设想的线——“第七弧线”——即卫星接收到的第七次“ping”信号所确定的区域，有可能是残骸所在处。

The Malaysian Government this week confirmed it had signed an agreement to pay a US seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity between $20 million and $70 million if it finds the missing aircraft within 90 days of embarking on a new search.

马来西亚政府本周确认，已经与美国一家名叫“海洋无限”（Ocean Infinity）的勘探公司签署了协议，称如果该公司在启动搜索后的90天内找到失踪的马航MH370飞机，马政府将支付该公司金额范围在2000至7000万美元（约合人民币1.3到4.5亿元）之内的钱款。

Its search ship Seabed Constructor is already heading to the new search zone and will begin scouring the ocean floor as early as next week.

目前，该公司的搜寻船“海底建造者”号（Seabed Constructor）已经开赴最新搜索区域，并将最早在下周（1/15这周）开始搜索区域内的海底。

Ocean Infinity is confident of finding the plane if indeed it is inside the search area.

如果确实在这片区域内，“海洋无限”公司有信心找到MH370。