VOA慢速英语:马航MH370失联5周年

About once a month, a group of Malaysians gather at a coffee shop or a home in Kuala Lumpur. They meet to support each other and to keep the memory of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 alive.
一群马来西亚人大约每月一次聚集在吉隆坡的咖啡馆或家中，他们见面互表支持并留住关于马航MH370的鲜活记忆。
Five years ago, the Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Search efforts covered an area from Southeast Asia to the coast of Africa. But neither the plane nor any of the 239 people it carried were found.
5年前，马来西亚航空公司客机从吉隆坡飞往北京的途中失踪，搜救工作覆盖了从东南亚到非洲海岸的这样一个区域，但是这架飞机和它搭载的239人都没有被找到。

Investigators became hopeful when, in July 2015, a piece of the plane's wing was found in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. But authorities officially suspended the search in January 2017.
2015年7月，在马达加斯加以东印度洋发现了一块飞机机翼，当时调查人员开始充满希望。但是当局于2017年1月正式停止了搜索。

Jacquita Gonzales' husband, Patrick Gomes, was an inflight supervisor on the plane. Gonzales' home is often the meeting place for family members of the missing.
Jacquita Gonzales的丈夫Patrick Gomes是该航班的客舱主管。Gonzales的家通常是失踪者家属的聚会场所。

"It goes beyond a group waiting for answers," she told the Reuters news agency. "It has become a family as well, an extended family."
她对路透社表示：“它超出了等待结果的一群人，变成了一个家庭，一个大家庭。”

Calvin Shim is raising his two children without his wife, Christine Tan. She was a crew member on flight MH370. "The other families know exactly how each of us feel," he said at a recent meeting at Gonzales' home.
Calvin Shim在没有妻子Christine Tan的情况下抚养着他的两个孩子。他的妻子是马航370航班的机组人员。他在Gonzales家中最近一次聚会上说道：“其他家庭懂我们每个人的感受。”

New satellite tracking system
新的卫星追踪系统

Since the 1940s, ground-based radar systems have been used to follow planes and other aircraft in flight. But this kind of system cannot track aircraft over large areas of the world's oceans.
自20世纪40年代以来，地面雷达系统一直被用于追踪飞行中的飞机和其它飞行器，但是该系统无法追踪全球大片海洋区域上空的飞行器。

This is one reason why the Malaysia Airlines plane has not been found.
这也是马航飞机没能找到的原因之一。

The disappearance of MH370 renewed the world's attention on tracking aircraft around the world. Shortly after the disappearance, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) pushed for quick action "to improve tracking of aircraft in flight."
马航370航班的失踪再次引起了全球对追踪世界各地飞行器的关注。在这次失踪事件后不久，国际民用航空组织就迅速采取行动“改善对空中飞行器的追踪。”

The United Nations organization is now asking that aircraft be fitted with a tracking system that reports its position every 15 minutes. By 2021, the organization also wants aircraft to be able to send information once every minute when in trouble.
联合国机构现在要求飞行器配备跟踪系统，每15分钟报告一次位置。该机构还希望到2021年，飞行器在遇到麻烦时能够每分钟发送一次信息。

In April 2017, Malaysia Airlines announced that it would be one of the first airlines to use Aireon's space-based system to track its planes in flight. Aireon says its system uses 66 satellites to cover the world. It's system includes areas that lacked air traffic service in the past -- like over oceans and the North and South poles. The system uses Global Positioning System (GPS) and signals from aircraft to determine locations in real-time.
2017年4月，马航宣布它将成为首批使用Aireon公司天基系统跟踪飞行航班的航空公司。Aireon公司称其系统采用66颗卫星覆盖全球，其系统包括过去缺乏空中交通服务的区域，如海洋和南北极。该系统采用全球定位系统和飞机发出的信号来确定实时位置。

Aireon chief Don Thoma said in a statement: "Malaysia Airlines has taken a lead role in the industry since the tragic events of 2014. Real-time, global flight tracking, anywhere on the planet, will further its safety goals, by allowing Malaysia Airlines to track its aircraft anytime, anywhere."
Aireon公司首席执行官Don Thoma在一份声明中表示：“马来西亚航空公司自2014年的这次惨痛事件以来，在该行业中发挥了主导作用。通过允许马来西亚航空公司随时随地跟踪其航班，实时、全球航班跟踪、地球任何位置，这些将会进一步促进其安全目标。”