VOA标准英语2013--航空专家质疑韩亚航空的文化碰撞

 

Aviation Experts Question Whether Culture Had Role in Asiana Crash 航空专家质疑韩亚航空的文化碰撞

WASHINGTON — July 6, 2013.  San Francisco, California.  An Asiana Airlines captain flies the plane in for a visual approach, without automated¹ control.  The National Transportation Safety Board’s Deborah Hersman says it came in too low and too slow. 

“About five seconds later and about three seconds before impact, there is a call for a go-around [aborted landing]. There is a second call for a go-around at 1.5 seconds prior to impact.”

The 777 hits the seawall and crashes, leaving three people dead and 180 injured.

The NTSB says the cockpit recorder for the South Korean jet indicates the crew had problems in the approach.  The NTSB says it was the first time the crew had flown together. There was no cockpit discussion about aborting² the landing, despite automated announcements of low altitude and despite frantic³ urgings from the other two pilots to go around seconds before the plane hit the ground.  There was no mention of low speed until nine seconds before impact.

History of problems

Sixteen years earlier on Guam, Korean Airlines flight 801 crashed, killing⁴ 228 people. 

The NTSB accident report indicated problems with the approach. Again, it was the first time the crew had flown together.  Again, the report cited no cockpit discussion about a go-around -- even though the first officer urged a go-around six seconds before impact. 

“The Safety Board concludes that the first officer and flight engineer failed to properly monitor and/or challenge the captain’s performance, which was causal to the accident," the NTSB reported.  It goes on to say, “Problems associated with subordinate officers challenging a captain are well known.”  It also mentions “KAL’s inadequate⁵ flight crew training.”

Two years later, another fatal crash involving Korean Air occurs in London.  According to the British Aircraft Accident Report, the first officer said nothing about the plane’s unsafe altitude and the captain ignored warnings from the flight engineer, who was 20 years his junior. The investigative team advised the South Koreans to revise training to “accommodate the Korean culture,” which places great weight on seniority and discourages younger people and subordinates from challenging their elders or superiors.

The South Korean government ordered Korean Air to suspend 138 flights a week for 6 months and to concentrate on improving safety and training. 

Suspension, downgrade

Transport Canada conducted a special safety audit⁶ of Korean Air and then issued a notice of suspension to Korean Air. The airline corrected the safety concerns so the suspension never took effect. 

The FAA downgraded all of South Korea's airlines from a Category 1 International Safety rating to a Category 2. By the end of the year, South Korea regained⁷ its Category 1 status.

At the time, Jim Hall was the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which had investigated the Guam crash. 

VOA showed him the similarities between that 1997 crash and the one involving Asiana. 

“I think the Asiana crash (investigator⁸) is going to have to look and ask, ‘Was this an unusual situation in which it was just crew error? Or is this an indication that the lessons that were pointed⁹ out in the previous accidents still have not been learned and not taken root in the Korean aviation system?’ ” Hall said.

The NTSB and South Korean officials say the captain landing in San Francisco, Lee Kang-kook, was on his first trip to become certified¹⁰ to operate the 777. He has logged more than 9,400 hours of flying, but only 43 on the 777. 

The instructor¹¹ pilot, Captain Lee Jeong-min, was on his first trip as a training captain and was the senior pilot.  As a former military pilot, he is three years older. He has more than 12,000 flight hours and 3,200 on the 777. The relief co-pilot is seven years his junior. 

Cultural idiosyncrasies

Sources who understand Korean culture say many factors establish hierarchy¹² - like age, rank, schools attended, union status and military service. Conformity¹³ is encouraged.

A former Asiana pilot who spoke¹⁴ to VOA on condition of anonymity¹⁵ described how seniority can be established at the airline. “The military pilots get super-seniority when they get hired by Asiana," he says. "They get a 10-year career in the service and maybe only get out with 2,000 hours of fly time. In America, most airlines have a seniority system.  If your seniority number comes up and you want to bid for a new airplane, you have to pass the proper tests.”

Park Jong-kook is executive director of the South Korean pilots' union.

“It was true that this kind of tradition affected¹⁶ the communication at the cockpit before the crash in Guam happened," says Park. "There was a vertical¹⁷ or military tradition in the past. But, the companies have put forward a lot of effort to improve this kind of tradition.”

Kwon Yong-bok is director general of Aviation Safety Policy at the South Korean transport ministry¹⁸. He says about 14 percent of the pilots in the country are foreigners, "so Korean culture is changing more globally and universally.”

Ross Aimer, a former United Airlines captain, was brought in to train the Korean Air pilots in 2005 and 2006.   

Change hard to come by

“It would take perhaps generations of pilots to eventually change the culture into a Western type of flying culture.”

Captain Vic Hooper retired¹⁹ from Asiana two years ago. He says Korean deference²⁰ in the cockpit was evident from his very first flight until his last. 

“I met the other three pilots, I’m going to fly with one of them, but both the first officers come up to me and they put their hands across their chests, and they bow and shake their hands, which is part of their culture, which is show their subservience²¹ to the rank. Because like I said, they respect rank, age, and position.”

No investigator has yet to formally connect cockpit culture to this crash. But Jim Hall hopes what NTSB investigators²² accomplished²³ in the '90s was not in vain.

“With a decade, it’s not unusual, unfortunately in the accident investigation²⁴ business, to find that lessons learned are also lessons forgotten as times pass,” he says.

Asiana executives bowed and expressed their sympathy and regret at a news conference the same day as the crash. They are initially²⁵ paying $10,000 to each survivor²⁶, but did not want to be interviewed for this story. 

Korean Air refused VOA requests for interviews, although KAL did send a list of all the improvements it made following the crashes in the 1990s. Changes were made to training, flight manuals, safety audits²⁷ and more. KAL, though, is currently under a special safety review by the South Korean government, after one of its jets overshot a runway on August 6. 

Additional reporting by Brandon Goldner in Washington, D.C., and Daniel Schearf in South Korea.

1 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

2 aborting   

v.（使）流产( abort的现在分词 )；（使）（某事物）中止；（因故障等而）（使）（飞机、宇宙飞船、导弹等）中断飞行；（使）（飞行任务等）中途失败

参考例句：

• Target machine is rebooting due to a different deployment task. Aborting deployment. 由于有另一个部署任务，目标计算机正在重新启动。正在中止部署。 来自互联网
• The number of seconds elapsed before aborting a connection attempt. 在中止连接尝试之前经过的秒数。 来自互联网

3 frantic   

adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的

参考例句：

• I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
• He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

6 audit   

v.审计；查帐；核对；旁听

参考例句：

• Each year they audit our accounts and certify them as being true and fair.他们每年对我们进行账务审核，以确保其真实无误。
• As usual,the yearly audit will take place in December.跟往常一样，年度审计将在十二月份进行。

7 regained   

复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地

参考例句：

• The majority of the people in the world have regained their liberty. 世界上大多数人已重获自由。
• She hesitated briefly but quickly regained her poise. 她犹豫片刻，但很快恢复了镇静。

8 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

9 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

10 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

11 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

12 hierarchy   

n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层

参考例句：

• There is a rigid hierarchy of power in that country.那个国家有一套严密的权力等级制度。
• She's high up in the management hierarchy.她在管理阶层中地位很高。

13 conformity   

n.一致，遵从，顺从

参考例句：

• Was his action in conformity with the law?他的行动是否合法？
• The plan was made in conformity with his views.计划仍按他的意见制定。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 anonymity   

n.the condition of being anonymous

参考例句：

• Names of people in the book were changed to preserve anonymity. 为了姓名保密，书中的人用的都是化名。
• Our company promises to preserve the anonymity of all its clients. 我们公司承诺不公开客户的姓名。

16 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

17 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

18 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

19 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

20 deference   

n.尊重，顺从；敬意

参考例句：

• Do you treat your parents and teachers with deference?你对父母师长尊敬吗？
• The major defect of their work was deference to authority.他们的主要缺陷是趋从权威。

21 subservience   

n.有利，有益；从属（地位），附属性；屈从，恭顺；媚态

参考例句：

• I could not make subservience an automatic part of my behavior. 我不能把阿谀奉承化为我自动奉行的处世之道。 来自辞典例句
• All his actions were in subservience to the general plan. 他的所有行为对整体计划有帮助。 来自互联网

22 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

24 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

25 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

26 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

27 audits   

n.审计，查账( audit的名词复数 )v.审计，查账( audit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Requires that use of all bond funds is subject to independent audits. 需要使用的所有债券基金是受独立审计。 来自互联网
• Support the locations during customer-visits, audits and quality-improvement programs. 支持客户参观，稽核和提高品质等项目。 来自互联网