美国老旧电信网络的一次升级导致了25年来最长的航班停飞，从周五开始扰乱了数千个航班，使乘客滞留全国各地，官员们表示。联邦当局称，被迫改道的航空公司预计将于周日晚些时候恢复正常运营。唐纳德·特朗普总统领导的政府将此次中断归咎于一次更换几十年历史的铜质通信线路的失败尝试。是什么导致了这场混乱？
An upgrade to an ageing telecommunications network in the United States led to the longest flight stoppage in 25 years, disrupting thousands of flights and leaving passengers stranded across the country beginning Friday, officials said. Federal authorities said airlines that had to divert flights were expected to return to normal operations by late Sunday. President Donald Trump-led administration blamed the disruption on a botched attempt to replace decades-old copper wire communication lines. What led to the chaos?
据官员称，美国空管系统中的过时设备不堪重负，导致通信和雷达出现“间歇性”中断。交通部长肖恩·达菲表示，问题始于L3Harris Technologies Inc公司在一个偏远地点更换旧铜线之后。随后，一台路由器开始向空管系统发送大量连接请求。
达菲说：“具体来说，我们每4到5秒就有超过1000次连接尝试。这导致了我们与飞机通信出现问题，也造成了雷达数据流的部分中断。一旦出现这种情况，安全至上，我们就关闭了空域。”
Outdated equipment in the country's air traffic control system was overwhelmed, resulting in “intermittent” communication and radar disruptions, according to officials. Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said the issue began after L3Harris Technologies Inc replaced old copper wire at a remote location. A router later started flooding the air traffic control system with connection requests.“Specifically, we had over 1,000 connection attempts every 4 to 5 seconds,” Duffy said. “And what that did was gave us issues with our communication with airplanes, and it also caused some disruption with our radar feeds. And when we see that, your safety is paramount, we shut down the airspace.”
达菲周五表示，当停飞令下达时已在空中的飞机，通过遵循为此类情况设计的“成熟程序”安全着陆。
Duffy said on Friday that aircraft already in the air when the halt was ordered landed safely by following “well-known procedures” designed for such situations.
此次中断迫使航空公司重新安排运营。由于从周五下午开始暂停起飞，飞机和机组人员被困在错误的位置，难以恢复航班时刻表。数十万乘客也被滞留在机场停机坪和航站楼内。
The disruption forced airlines to make fresh arrangements for their operations. With take-offs suspended from Friday afternoon, aircraft and crew members were left out of position, making it difficult to restore flight schedules. Hundreds of thousands of passengers were also stranded on airport tarmacs and inside terminals.
前联邦航空管理局（FAA）空域经理迈克尔·麦考米克告诉美联社，此次事件涉及一种被称为“滚动性中断”的技术问题。
Michael McCormick, a former airspace manager with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), told Associated Press that the incident involved a technical issue known as a rolling outage.
此类故障可能在不同时间、毫无预警地影响空中交通管制中心。为何地面问题影响数千英里外的航班据一份官方通知，美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）在周五因区域空中交通管制中心出现问题，下令全国范围内停飞。麦科米克表示，美国共有22个此类中心，由联邦航空管理局管理，负责监管机场之间的长距离航班。机场塔台指挥飞行员在全美500多座机场起降。
Such failures can affect air traffic control centres at different times and without warning. Why a problem on the ground affected flights thousands of miles awayThe FAA ordered a nationwide halt to flights on Friday after problems emerged at regional air traffic control centres, according to an official notice. The US has 22 such centres, which are managed by the FAA and oversee long-distance flights between airports, McCormick said. Airport control towers guide pilots during take-offs and landings at more than 500 airports across the country.
飞机离开机场后，终端雷达进近管制中心接管，随后将其移交给区域空中交通管制中心。专家告诉美联社，飞机抵达目的地时，这一过程会按相反顺序进行。麦科米克说，管理高空飞行的区域空中交通管制中心，依靠远程无线电发射和接收站点与全国各地的飞行员通信。这些站点通过电信网络与管制中心相连，网络正在从铜缆升级为光纤线路。
As aircraft move away from airports, Terminal Radar Approach Control centres take charge before handing them over to regional air traffic control centres. Experts told AP that the same process takes place in reverse when planes approach their destinations. McCormick said that regional air traffic control centres, which manage aircraft flying at high altitudes, depend on remote radio transmitter and receiver sites to communicate with pilots across the country. These sites are linked to control centres through telecommunications networks that are being upgraded from copper cables to fibre-optic lines.
他表示，这种连接使管制员和飞行员能够双向通信，并有助于确保飞机保持安全间隔等。9月，纽瓦克自由国际机场因铁路施工人员意外损坏一条备用光缆，一度失去与飞机的雷达通信。该事件迫使联邦航空管理局取消数百个进出该机场的航班。不过，美联社报道引述的航空专家表示，周五的中断情况有所不同。
The connection allows controllers and pilots to communicate in both directions and helps ensure that aircraft maintain safe distances from one another, among other things, he said. In September, Newark Liberty International Airport temporarily lost radar communication with aircraft after railway construction workers accidentally damaged a backup fibre-optic cable. The incident forced the FAA to cancel hundreds of flights arriving at and departing from the airport. However, aviation experts quoted in the AP report said that Friday's disruption was different.
美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）局长布莱恩·贝德福德周六对记者表示，频率稳定性的间歇性问题已影响美国22个区域空中交通管制中心中的多达17个。
麻省理工学院航空学教授、研究涵盖航空信息技术的R·约翰·汉斯曼对美联社表示：“此次事件的独特之处在于，这是一种非局部性的故障，因为它属于通信系统的一部分，故障蔓延到了全国各地。”
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters on Saturday that intermittent problems with frequency stability had affected up to 17 of the 22 regional air traffic control centres in the US.R John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at MIT whose research covers information technology in aviation, told AP: “The thing that was unique about this is that it was a type of failure that wasn’t local because it was part of the communication system. It propagated around the country.”
美国此前仅下令过一次全国性停飞。在2001年9月11日袭击事件发生后，所有航班被禁止起飞数日。综合美联社等通讯社报道
The US has ordered a nationwide halt to flights only once before. Following the September 11, 2001, attacks, all flights were barred from taking off for several days. With inputs from AP, other agencies