埃航空難原因 有關方面拒絕排除恐襲

Authorities are refusing to rule out that an EgyptAir passenger jet that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday morning was brought down by an act of terrorism.

有關部門拒絕排除週四凌晨一架埃及航空公司(EgyptAir)客機墜入地中海是恐怖行爲所致。

Egypt’s foreign ministry said on Thursday evening that debris found near the Greek island of Karpathos, where Greece’s military radar lost contact with the plane flying from Paris to Cairo, was from the missing aircraft, according to a person close to EgyptAir. However, doubt was subsequently cast on that claim after Athanasios Binis, head of Greece’s air safety authority, told AFP that the debris was not from an aircraft.

埃及外交部週四晚表示，在希臘喀帕蘇斯島(Karpathos)附近發現的殘骸屬於這架失蹤的飛機。據接近埃及航空公司的一名人士介紹，那裏正是這架從巴黎飛往開羅的飛機從希臘軍用雷達上消失的位置。然而，希臘航空安全局局長比尼斯(Athanasios Binis)對法新社說，那些殘骸並非來自一架飛機，此後，人們對埃及外交部的上述說法表達了懷疑。

US intelligence services are helping French and Egyptians authorities analyse the list of 56 passengers for possible terrorist connections. However, Josh Earnest, White House spokesman, said: “It is too early to definitively say what has caused this disaster.”

美國情報機構正在幫助法國和埃及有關部門分析56名乘客的名單，以尋找可能存在的恐怖分子線索。不過，白宮發言人喬希•歐內斯特(Josh Earnest)表示：“現在就肯定地說是什麼原因導致這場災難爲時過早。”

Asked if terrorism could be to blame for the disappearance, Sherif Ismail, the Egyptian prime minister, said his country was not excluding any cause at this stage.

在被問及恐怖主義是否可能要對這起失事負責時，埃及總理謝里夫•伊斯梅爾(Sherif Ismail)表示，他的國家在目前階段不排除任何原因。

Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos said radar showed the Airbus A320 veered sharply shortly after leaving Greek-controlled airspace. The jet plunged from 37,000 feet to 10,000 feet where it dropped off the radar before crashing into the sea between the Greek island of Karpathos and the Egyptian coast.

希臘國防部長帕諾斯•卡梅諾斯(Panos Kammenos)表示，雷達顯示，這架空客(Airbus) A320飛機在離開希臘管制空域後不久急劇轉向。這架噴氣機從3.7萬英尺高度驟降至1萬英尺，之後即從雷達屏幕上消失，最終墜落於希臘喀帕蘇斯島與埃及海岸之間的海上。

François Hollande, French president, said the cause of the crash was unknown. “We have a duty to know everything about what happened. No hypothesis is preferred, no hypothesis is being ruled out,” he said.

法國總統弗朗索瓦•奧朗德(François Hollande)表示，飛機墜毀的原因不明。“我們有責任徹底瞭解發生了什麼事。我們不偏向任何假設，也不排除任何假設，”他說。

The statement followed hours of confusion over the fate of flight MS804, which left Charles de Gaulle airport at 11.09pm local time on Wednesday and disappeared off radar at about 2.30am Cairo time, 10 miles inside Egyptian airspace.

奧朗德發表聲明之前，圍繞MS804航班的命運出現了幾小時的混亂。該機在當地時間週三晚11時09分從戴高樂機場起飛，開羅時間週四凌晨大約2時30分在進入埃及空域10英里後從雷達上消失。

The state-owned airline said there were 30 Egyptian nationals among the passengers, along with 15 French and two Iraqi, and one each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.

國有的埃及航空公司表示，乘客中有30名埃及人，15名法國人和兩名伊拉克人，還有來自英國、比利時、科威特、沙特阿拉伯、蘇丹、乍得、葡萄牙、阿爾及利亞和加拿大的各一人。

The Canadian government later said that two Canadian citizens had been on board.

加拿大政府後來說，機上有兩名加拿大公民。

A large air and sea search was still under way in the area where the aircraft crashed. Weather conditions at the time were good, meaning investigators are likely to focus on the possibility that the crash was caused as the result of a deliberate act or a catastrophic mechanical failure.

在墜機區域，一場大規模海空搜索仍在進行中。失事當時天氣條件良好，這意味着調查很可能聚焦於這起飛機失事是一種故意行爲或災難性機械故障所致的可能性。

The lack of radio contact with the plane is likely to be of particular significance to investigators, suggesting the flight crew was grappling with an emergency, incapacitated or prevented from answering before the aircraft abruptly changed course and crashed into the sea.

該機在最後關頭未能與地面保持無線電聯絡，這一點很可能對調查人員具有特別重大的意義，因爲這似乎表明在飛機突然改變航向、隨即墜海之前，機組人員在應對緊急情況、失去行爲能力，或者被阻止應答。

Konstantinos Lintzerakos, director of Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority, said controllers tried to contact the pilot 10 miles before the plane left the Greek Flight Information Region (FIR). The pilot did not respond, he said, and they tried to make contact for 10 minutes.

希臘民航局長康斯坦丁諾斯•林澤拉科斯(Konstantinos Lintzerakos)表示，空管人員在這架飛機距離離開希臘飛航情報區(FIR)還有10英里時試圖與飛行員聯繫。他說，飛行員沒有應答，空管人員花了10分鐘繼續呼叫。

Greek and Egyptian authorities said they had received no distress call from the flight crew.

希臘和埃及有關部門表示，他們沒有接到機組發出的求救呼叫。