本文选自《北外网院》的博客，点击查看博客原文

　　The pilots of Northwest Flight 188 assert they lost track of time andlocation--but never went to sleep--when they failed last week to respond to air-traffic controllers for more than an hour, according to people familiar with what the crew intended to tell federal safety investigators Sunday。

　　消息人士说，西北航空188号航班的飞行员声称，他们在上周一个半小时没有回答空中交通指挥人员的事故中，忘记了时间和地点，但并没有睡着，这是航班机组人员周日力图对联邦安全调查人员讲的内容。

　　During asession with a team from National Transportation Safety Board,these people said, the cockpit crew intended to recount the samesequence of events it previously sketched out for airline superiors: They became distracted in conversation while cruising at37,000 feet Wednesday night, didn't realize how long the plane hadlost radio contract and flew well past their airport destination.Such a scenario is consistent with the brief statements firstofficer Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., made to reporters earlier inthe weekend。

　　机组人员在会见全国运输安全委员会时说，驾驶人员打算继续按照先前向航空公司上级叙述的先后顺序复述事情经过：周三晚在37,000英尺的高空飞行时，他们在交谈中分了心，没有意识到已经有多久失去了无线电联系，并飞过了目的地机场很长一段距离。这种叙述符合副机长科尔在周末早些时候对媒体记者发表的简短声明。

　　During the 78-minute radio silence, controllers became so concerned about thefate of the 149 people aboard that they asked pilots of otheraircraft in the vicinity to see if they could rouse the Northwestcrew, according to industry and government officials. When thatfailed, the Federal Aviation Administration began to considerhaving military jets scrambled to intercept the twin-jet AirbusA320, these officials said。

　　美国航空业和政府官员说，在飞机与地面塔台失去联络的78分钟内，空中交通管制员对机上149名乘客的安全非常担忧，他们因此请求附近其他飞机的飞行员看看能否唤醒这架西北航空公司航班的机组人员。这些官员说，在呼叫失败之后，美国航空管理局开始考虑让军用飞机升空拦截这架双引擎的空客A320飞机。

　　Theincident--which pilots and safety experts consider a bizarre breakfrom routine procedure--had the plane crossing various air-trafficcontrol zones and being passed to different groups of controllerswithout any verbal response. It comes as federal regulators,lawmakers and airlines are focusing on the issue of pilot fatigueand debating possible changes to rules that spell out how longpilots can fly or be on duty in a 24-hour period。

　　这起事故导致飞机飞越了诸多空中交通管制区域，数组不同的管制员曾先后试图联络飞机，但都没有得到口头答复。飞机驾驶员和安全专家认为这起事故奇怪地违反了例行程序。时下，联邦监管部门、国会议员和航空公司正在关注飞行员疲惫的问题，并展开争论，可能对飞行员在24小时内能够飞行或值班多长时间的管理规定做出调整。

　　Safetyofficials at Northwest and its parent, Delta Air Lines Inc., appearto support the pilots' statements, according to one person involvedin the deliberations. Even so, government investigators arepressing to see whether fatigue may have played a role in thebizarre flight of the Airbus A320 with 149 people aboard。

　　据参与讨论此事的一位人士说，西北航空及其母公司达美航空公司的安全官员似乎支持飞行员们的陈述。尽管如此，政府调查人员还是希望了解，在这架搭载了149人的空客A320飞机的离奇航程中，是不是可能存在疲劳驾驶的因素。

　　With the probepicking up steam, some pilots and safety experts who initially strongly suspected snoozing pilots are tempering their position inlight of additional data. One new factor, for example, is thatDelta has confirmed that the crew's schedule that day wasn'tespecially demanding. And fatigue experts have weighed in to notethat the evening hours when the incident occurred typically don'tpose particular challenges for the internal body clocks ofpilots。

　　随着调查的深入，在新的资料面前，一些先前强烈怀疑飞行员打瞌睡的飞行员和安全专家正在缓和立场。比如有一个新的因素是，达美已经确认，当天机组的安排并不是特别紧张。疲劳问题研究专家也说，虽然晚间是事故多发时段，但对飞行员的生物钟并不构成特别的挑战。

　　But withoutclear-cut data from the plane's cockpit-voice or flight-datarecorders, it may be hard for investigators to conclusively back uppilot assertions or precisely determine what happened. Spokesmenfor Delta and the safety board declined to comment。

　　但在没有来自舱音或飞行数据记录器的明确资料的情况下，调查人员或许很难鲜明地支持飞行员的说法，或者是准确界定当时发生的情况。达美航空和全国运输安全委员会的发言人都拒绝置评。