Twenty years before the crash of KAL801, a Korean Air Boeing 707 wandered into Russian airspace and was shot down by a military jet over the Barents sea.

在大韩航空公司航班801坠机事件发生的20年前，大韩航空的一架波音707飞机因误入俄罗斯的领空属地，被前苏联军队的喷气式战机击落于巴伦支海。

It was an accident, meaning the kind of rare and catastrophic event that, for the grace of god, could happen to any airline.

这是场意外事故，罕见且惨痛。但基于神的旨意，任何一条航线都有可能遇上类似的情况。

It was investigated and analyzed. Lessons were learned. Reports were filed.

调查后的分析结果被作为案例以供借鉴，而报告也被存档。

Then, two years later, a Korean Air Boeing 747 crashed in Seoul.

两年之后，大韩航空的一架波音747在首尔坠落。

Two accidents in two years is not a good sign.

两年内发生两件坠机事件绝对不是个好兆头。

Three years after that, the airline lost another 747 near Sakhalin Island, in Russia,

三年之后，该航空公司在前苏联的库页岛附近损失了另一架波音747；

followed by a Boeing 707 that went down over the Andaman Sea in 1987, two more crashed in 1989 in Tripoli and Seoul, and then another in 1984 in Cheju, South Korea.

之后，1987年，一架波音707坠落到安达曼海；1989年，另外两架飞机又分别坠落在的黎波里和首尔；1989年，在韩国南部的济州岛，坠机事件再次发生。

To put that record in perspective, the "loss" rate for an airline like the American carrier United Airlines in the period 1988 to1998 was 0.27 per million departures,

我们可以比较以下事故的相关统计。1988年到1998年，美国运输联合航空公司一条航线的飞机损失率为每百万次损失0.27架，

which means that they lost a plane in an accident about once in every four million flights.

这意味着他们飞行400万次发生一次事故损失一架飞机。

The loss rate for Korean Air, in the same period, was 4.79 per million departures, seventeen times higher.

而同时期的大韩航空，其损失率为飞行百万次损失4.79架飞机——超过17倍之多。

Korean Airplanes were crashing so often that when the National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB), the US agency responsible for investigating plane crashes within American jurisdiciton,

大韩航空坠机事件频繁发生，美国国家交通安全委员会（简称为NTSB）为此对关岛事故展开了详细的调查，该机构是美国一家专门负责调查飞机失事原因的机构。

the Korean Air 747 that crash-landed at Kimpo in Seoul, almost a year to the day after Guam; the jet line that overran a runway at Korea's Ulsan Airport eight weeks after that;

关岛事件发生一年后，一架计划在首尔金浦机场着陆的波音747坠机；在此之后的第八个星期，一架喷气式客机在韩国的蔚山机场冲出跑道；

the Korean Air McDonnell Douglas that rammed into an embankment at Pohang Airport the following March; and then, a month after that, a Korean Air passenger jet that crashed in a residential area of Shanghai.

接下来的3月份，韩国航空的麦道83直接冲向浦项机场的护栏；一个月后，韩国航空的一架客机在上海附近坠落。

Had the NTSB waited just a few more months, it could have added another:

如果美国国家交通安全委员会能够再等上几个月，那么他们的失事记录上就会再增加一条：

the Korea Air cargo plane that crashed just after takeoff from London's Stansted Airport, despite the fact that a warning bell went off in the cockpit no fewer than fourteen times.

一架大韩航空的货机从伦敦斯坦斯特机场起飞，不久就发生了坠机事故。尽管从黑匣子的记录里，我们发现警铃曾响过多达14次。