Travelers, corporate travel departments and security consultants are trying to figure out ways to avoid flights that pass over war zones after the revelation that some airlines were avoiding eastern Ukraine while others, including Malaysia Airlines, were flying over areas of conflict.
旅客、商务差旅部门以及安全顾问眼下都想要知道航班的飞行路线，以避开那些途径交战区的航班。此前据披露，一些航空公司正在避开乌克兰东部飞行，而包括马来西亚航空公司(Malaysia Airlines)在内的其他一些航空公司则经由冲突地区上空飞行。
With a little research, you can build confidence that your airline is avoiding trouble spots -- or discover if it isn't. While you won't know for sure the exact path your flight will take on a given day, you can figure out whether your airline routinely skirts certain countries, and the most likely route you'll fly.
你只要稍加研究，便可对你的航班是否避开问题区域做到心中有数。虽然你不能保证了解你所乘航班的当日确切路线，但你可以知道该航班一般是否会绕开某些国家，以及该航班最有可能执飞的路线。
Every day hundreds of passenger airliners fly over trouble spots. Passenger jets regularly pass over Baghdad, for example. There are 41 'kinetic conflicts' -- situations where people are shooting at each other -- around the world, according to security intelligence firm iJet International Inc., which advises corporate travel departments and airlines.
每天飞过问题地区的客机有数百架。例如巴格达上空一般都会有客机经过。据安全情报机构iJet International Inc.表示，全世界目前有41个区域处于“动态冲突”（指人们互相开火的状态）状态。这家机构主要为商务差旅部门和航空公司提供咨询。
'This is not an isolated incident' of flying over conflict areas, said iJet chief executive Bruce McIndoe, who has already had conversations with clients -- traveler managers and airlines -- about supplying more information about potential trouble areas. Even though most of the 41 are small, localized conflicts without high-powered surface-to-air missiles involved, 'it's a whole new world as of a couple of days ago,' he said.
iJet的首席执行长麦金杜(Bruce McIndoe)表示，飞跃冲突区并不是一件孤立的事。麦金杜已经与旅客经理以及航空公司这些客户就提供更多关于潜在问题区信息的问题进行了交流。尽管在上述41处冲突中多数属于小规模的局部冲突，没有强大的地对空导弹的参与，但麦金杜表示，在数天前，这方面还是一个全新的领域。
There's also the remote possibility of having to make an emergency landing at an airport in the middle of a conflict.
而在冲突中紧急迫降在机场则是一件可能性很小的事。
Airlines make decisions for every flight about the planned route, usually based mostly on weather forecasts and winds. Airlines want the most economical route, but often fly around severe weather or take a longer route with more favorable winds. And some are more cautious about flying over conflicts than others.
每次飞行中，航空公司都要围绕规划的路线作出种种决定，通常主要依据天气预报和风力情况。航空公司希望走最经济的那条路线，但这样的话往往会经过天气恶劣的地方或者是选取风向有利、但需要更长时间的路线。一些航空公司则比其他公司对于飞经冲突区更为谨慎。
In the days leading up to the July 17 downing of Malaysia Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, several airlines, including Australia's Qantas Airways and Dubai-based Emirates, regularly flew longer routes around the area of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. Other carriers continued to fly routes over the territory that had been deemed safe by local governments and air-traffic control agencies.
在7月17日MH17航班在乌克兰东部上空被击落之前，包括澳洲航空公司(Qantas Airways Ltd.)和总部位于迪拜的阿联酋航空(Emirates Airline)在内的几家航空公司的长途航线经常会飞过俄罗斯支持的分裂分子与乌克兰军队的交战区附近。其他航空公司继续在被当地政府和空管机构认定为安全的区域飞行。
'I think this is a wake-up call,' said Michael McCormick, executive director of the Global Business Travel Association, which represents corporate travel executives. He says companies and individual travelers assumed airlines could be trusted to fly in safe skies, but now some will start evaluating flight-path risk on their own. Travel managers already use security firms to evaluate risks on the ground, such as riots, strikes, crime and storms.
全球商务旅行协会(Global Business Travel Association)执行董事麦考密克(Michael McCormick)称，他认为这起事故给人们敲响了警钟。他说，公司和个人旅行者认为可以相信航空公司会在安全空域飞行，但现在一些人将自行评估飞行路径的风险。旅行经理已经在藉助安全公司评估地面风险，如暴动、罢工、犯罪和风暴等。
'The reality is companies send travelers to every corner of the world and we can't make that assumption anymore that airlines are looking after this part of security,' Mr. McCormick said.
麦考密克表示，现实情况是，企业派员工到世界各地出差，不能再想当然地认为航空公司会对飞行路径方面的安全负责。
Savvy travelers can check up on airlines with flight-tracking services like FlightAware.com and Flightradar24.com. Both collect data from air-traffic control agencies and in some cases use automatic position broadcasts from airplanes themselves. They are considered accurate and reliable, with extensive use by airlines and corporate jet services.
明智的出行者会通过FlightAware.com和Flightradar24.com等航班追踪服务机构来查询航班情况。两家网站均从空管机构收集资料，在某些情况下使用飞机自身的自动定位广播。这些网站提供的信息被认为是精确可靠的，被航空公司和商务飞机服务机构广泛采用。
FlightAware and Flightradar24 let users enter an airline flight number and then see the path of the latest trip. Both have flight histories available, so you can check the path over several days. On FlightAware, you can also search for flights by departure and destination, which can give you more flights to compare on roughly the same long-distance path.
FlightAware和Flightradar24允许用户输入航班号，然后就可以看到最近一次飞行的路径。两家网站都提供航班历史记录查询，因此用户可以查看几天内的飞行路径。在FlightAware上，用户还可以通过出发地和目的地来查询航班，从而对距离基本一致的路径上的不同航班进行比较。