原声播报85：禁飞两年后，波音737MAX何时能在华复飞？

Boeing 737 Max Lands in Shanghai for Flight Tests to End Grounding

禁飞两年后，波音737MAX何时能在华复飞？ 

【文中生词】

flight test 飞行试验

formality 正式手续

fatal crash 机毁人亡

simulator 模拟器

geopolitics 地缘政治

【词汇延展】

rudder 方向舵

elevator 升降舵

control surface 操纵面

instrument panel 仪表板

fuel tank 燃料箱

【单词详解】

delve

v. 钻研；探究；挖

research or make painstaking inquiries into something

delver n. 钻研者，探索者

词组

delve into 深入探究

例句

She delved in her handbag for a pen.

她在手提包里翻找钢笔。

The society is determined to delve deeper into the matter.

学会决定进一步探讨研究此事。

aviation

n. 航空；飞机制造业

the flying or operating of aircraft

aviator n. 飞行员

词组

aviation industry 航空工业；飞机制造业

civil aviation 民用航空

例句

The civil aviation minister ordered all the planes to be grounded. 

民航部长命令所有飞机均不得起飞。

The airline's biggest headache is the increase in the price of aviation fuel. 

令航空公司最头疼的问题是航空燃料价格的上涨。

Well, today I’m going to be delving into the latest on the American aviation giant Boeing and its business ventures in the world’s second largest economy.

Okay so what’s going on?

Alright, so on Saturday, a Boeing 737 Max jetliner arrived at a Shanghai airport for flight tests. Now, this may not seem terribly exciting for a lot of people and may just sound like some routine safety formality, but this story is a lot lot bigger than that. After 2 years of grounding, Boeing is hoping that the Chinese government will give its plane the green light to return to service in the Asian nation.

So let’s talk a little bit more about why China decided to ground this particular model in the first place.

Yeah, so this all traces back to some serious safety concerns. That’s after these planes were involved in two deadly crashes which were just five months apart. The first crash occurred in Indonesia in October 2018, and the second one was in Ethiopia in March 2019. A total of 346 people died in these crashes. Now in the wake of the disasters, governments worldwide suspended services with the 737 Max. And China actually was the first country to make this decision. Doing so just days after the second crash.

And if I could just jump in here, do we actually know what caused these fatal crashes? It all sounds some extremely alarming.

Yeah, it definitely sounds very alarming. So as you can imagine, there was a huge probe into this. And the U.S. congressional investigators concluded in 2020 that the disasters were actually caused by a mixture of factors. That includes failures by Boeing engineers, deception by the company as well as significant errors in government oversight.

Now, since then, Boeing has launched a campaign to get the 737 Max back in service. Indeed, in November 2020, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration cleared the plane to resume operations. And soon after that, more than 170 countries and regions, including the EU and Canada, have also approved the jet. But, with China, it’s another story. After 30 months, the Asian giant has continued to suspend operations with the 737 Max.

So now Boeing is pushing for the plane to make comeback in China?

Yeah, that’s right. And it’s definitely not hard to figure out why this is all so important for the company. After all, China represents one of Boeing’s most critical markets. That’s specially because the Asian nation has the largest 737 Max fleet after the U.S. In fact, China had nearly 100 737 Max planes in operation before the suspension. 

Now Boeing has told Caixin on Monday that it is working with Chinese regulators to conduct flight and simulator tests. And that’s in order to help China better understand the changes made by the American company to the plane. And a person close to the matter said that Boeing will take a simulator test and if all goes well, a first flight test also in China will be set for August 11. The company’s CEO has also said last month that he is confident that the 737 Max will win approval in more countries, including China, by the end of the year.

And do we know what China needs in order to feel satisfied that these plans are indeed safe enough to take to the country’s skies?

Yeah, so earlier this year, the deputy head of China’s aviation regulator said the country has three main criteria that need to be met before this is allowed to happen again. So first, changes in design aimed at fixing the plane’s problems need to be approved by China. Second, pilots need to be retrained to fly the jetliners following those changes. And lastly, the conclusions of the Ethiopian and Indonesian crash reports need to be clear.

Having said all of that, aviation experts also say that the return of 737 Max to China is affected by more complicated factors. 

And by complicated, I assume you mean geopolitics and the coronavirus?

Indeed. These experts are saying that further obstacles are posed by China-U.S. tensions, as well as the slump in air travel amid the pandemic. So watch this space.