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For the second time in 2017, a passenger plane vanished midflight. In March, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared and the most expensive search mission in recent aviation history followed. It is still missing. On Sunday, AirAsia Flight 8501 disappeared off Indonesia. It took about two days for search teams to find debris. 2017年，先后有两架客机在飞行途中消失。3月，马来西亚航空(Malaysia Airlines)370航班失联，触发了近年航空史上最昂贵的搜索行动。370航班至今仍然杳无踪迹。上周日，亚洲航空(AirAsia)8501航班在飞离印度尼西亚后失踪。搜救队伍用了大约两天时间才找到了飞机残骸。 These similar incidents suggest that the current system for tracking aircraft — via ground-based radar and satellite — is insufficient. It’s shocking that two planes carrying hundreds of people could go missing, especially given advances in wireless communication. 两起相似的事故意味着，目前用于追踪飞机位置的方法——通过地面的雷达以及卫星——并不足以完成任务。尤其是考虑到无线通讯领域的种种进步，两架载有数百名乘客的飞机居然会失踪，这让人感到不可思议。 From a technological standpoint, it’s possible to outfit aircraft to stream flight data in real time. Carriers have been reluctant to do so because in-flight disasters are rare, and streaming is costly. But shaken by the loss of Flight 370, the aviation industry and aviation regulators are coming around to the need for change. | 
