報告：馬航MH370墜海時無人控制
An analysis of satellite data suggests no one was flying Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 when it plunged into the Indian Ocean in March 2014.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released the report Wednesday as experts gathered in Sydney to assess possible future searches for the plane, which vanished with 239 people aboard.
Satellite communications from the aircraft are consistent with the aircraft being in a "high and increasing rate of descent" before it disappeared, the report said. The Australian investigators believe the plane likely flew on autopilot for a time before running out of fuel and crashing into the ocean. The flight was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it went missing.
While a few pieces from the plane washed up on shores around the Indian Ocean in the two and a half years since it disappeared, the crash site of the Boeing 777 has not been located.
One of those pieces – a wing flap found on a shore in Tanzania – seemed to confirm the theory that no one was at the controls of the plane in its final moments.
Investigators say the flap does not appear to have been deployed when it broke off the plane's wing. Had a pilot been trying to bring the plane in for a controlled ditching, the flaps would typically have been extended.
Crews continue to scour a 120,000-square kilometer search area, however, that effort is expected to be completed in early 2017. Unless there is new evidence indicating a specific location for the crash, officials say they will end the hunt for MH370.衛星數據分析顯示，馬來西亞航空公司MH370航班2014年3月墜入印度洋時處於無人控制狀態。
澳大利亞交通安全局（ATSB）星期三公佈了調查報告。有關專家在悉尼開會商討未來繼續尋找飛機的可行方案。MH370失聯時，機上有239人。
報告稱，飛機的衛星聯絡數據符合飛機失聯前“高速並持續增速下降”的特徵。澳大利亞調查人員認爲，飛機在燃油耗盡並墜海前可能以自動駕駛模式飛行了一段時間。這個航班失蹤時正在從吉隆坡飛往北京。
在飛機失聯至今兩年半的時間裏，儘管一些來自這架波音777飛機的殘骸曾在印度洋沿線被衝上岸，但失事的地點至今未被找到。
現有的殘骸之一是在坦桑尼亞被衝上岸的一塊襟翼，似乎證實飛機在墜海前無人控制。
調查人員表示，這塊襟翼從機翼上脫落時可能並未展開。如果飛行員曾試圖人爲引導飛機緊急降落的話，襟翼通常會是打開的。
搜尋隊目前仍在12萬平方公里的海面上進行搜尋，但搜尋行動預計2017年初結束。搜尋隊官員表示，除非有新證據顯示具體的墜機地點，否則他們將結束對MH370的搜尋。
