报告：马航MH370坠海时无人控制

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.

澳大利亚交通安全局（ATSB）星期三公布了调查报告。有关专家在悉尼开会商讨未来继续寻找飞机的可行方案。MH370失联时，机上有239人。

报告称，飞机的卫星联络数据符合飞机失联前“高速并持续增速下降”的特征。澳大利亚调查人员认为，飞机在燃油耗尽并坠海前可能以自动驾驶模式飞行了一段时间。这个航班失踪时正在从吉隆坡飞往北京。

在飞机失联至今两年半的时间里，尽管一些来自这架波音777飞机的残骸曾在印度洋沿线被冲上岸，但失事的地点至今未被找到。

现有的残骸之一是在坦桑尼亚被冲上岸的一块襟翼，似乎证实飞机在坠海前无人控制。

调查人员表示，这块襟翼从机翼上脱落时可能并未展开。如果飞行员曾试图人为引导飞机紧急降落的话，襟翼通常会是打开的。

搜寻队目前仍在12万平方公里的海面上进行搜寻，但搜寻行动预计2017年初结束。搜寻队官员表示，除非有新证据显示具体的坠机地点，否则他们将结束对MH370的搜寻。