哥伦比亚客机遭雷击坠毁 仅1人遇难

A Boeing 737 crash-landed Monday on a Colombian resort island during a lightning storm, scattering passengers across the runway as it split in three, but somehow only one passenger died.

A 73-year-old woman suffered a heart attack and died in hospital, but officials said it was a "miracle" there were no more fatalities among the 130 survivors, most of whom suffered some kind of injury.

The plane was struck by lightning 80 meters (250 feet) above the tarmac at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla airport on the Caribbean island of San Andres, aviation officials said, but the cause of the crash was still under investigation.

Passengers were "literally scattered over the end of the runway," a police statement said. The authorities later put the number of injured at more than 120, five of them seriously.

There were at least 16 foreigners on board the Boeing 737-300, including six French, four Brazilians, four Americans and two Costa Ricans.

"We all felt the plane was arriving very, very quickly on the tarmac," 28-year-old Virginie Giroux, one of the French passengers said.

"We did not feel the contact with the ground. We just saw everything flying, everything bursting in the plane."

Orlando Paez Baron, director of civil security from Colombia's national police, said the pilot had briefly lost control of the aircraft but showed skill in keeping the plane on the runway.

The plane, belonging to Colombia's Aires airline, left Bogota shortly after midnight and crashed in San Andres in conditions of reduced visibility about two hours later, according to air traffic controllers.

San Andres's governor Pedro Gallardo said it was only good fortune that prevented there being more casualties among the 131 people on board.

"We thank God for the miracle granted to this archipelago," he told national radio. "The captain, the co-pilot and all the crew are safe."

本周一，一架波音737客机在哥伦比亚一个旅游海岛降落时遭遇雷击，不幸坠毁，被摔成三截，机上乘客四散在跑道上，但所幸仅有一名乘客身亡。

飞机失事后，一名73岁的老妇因心脏病发作，被送往医院抢救无效后去世，但有关官员称，其余130名乘客全部生还简直是个“奇迹”。大部分幸存者都受了点伤。

据当地航空部门官员介绍，这架客机在距离加勒比海圣安德列斯岛的古斯塔沃．罗哈斯．皮尼利亚机场停机坪上空80米（250英尺）处遭遇雷击，但具体的坠毁原因仍在调查之中。

哥伦比亚警方在一份声明中称，机上的乘客“差不多是四散在跑道的尽头”。据有关部门统计，此次事故造成120多人受伤，其中5人伤势较重。

当天，这架波音737-300客机至少搭载了16名外国人，包括6名法国人、4名巴西人、4名美国人以及两名哥斯达黎加人。

28岁的法国乘客维尔吉尼·吉鲁说：“我们都感觉到飞机疾速地落向停机坪。”

“我们没有感觉到飞机落到了地面上，只是看到飞机里的东西四处乱飞，爆裂声此起彼伏。”

哥伦比亚国家警察局民事安全部门负责人奥兰多·派斯·巴伦表示，失事飞机曾一度失控，但飞行员凭借高超的技术成功避免了飞机冲出跑道。

据航空管制官员介绍，这架隶属于哥伦比亚阿伊列斯航空公司的客机在午夜时分从波哥大起飞，两小时后因能见度降低在圣安德列斯岛坠毁。

圣安德列斯省长佩德罗．加拉多称，131名乘客中仅有一人遇难，真是幸运。

他在接受国家电台采访时说：“这堪称一个奇迹，感谢上帝。机长、副驾驶和所有机组人员都安然无恙。”

Vocabulary:

crash-land: to land (an aircraft) in an emergency causing damage or (of an aircraft) to land in this way（紧急降落）

tarmac: a runway at an airport（停机坪）

archipelago: 群岛，列岛