It was a slow and gentle plunge¹: The world’s largest aircraft, the Airlander 10, crashed in southern England on Wednesday during its second test flight.

那是一个缓慢而柔和的俯冲：周三，世界上最大的飞行器“天空登陆者10号”(Airlander 10)在第二次试飞期间坠落在英格兰南部。

In a video posted on YouTube, spectators could be heard saying, “Oh my God, he just crashed it,” as the nose of the aircraft made contact with the ground after an agonizingly slow descent at Cardington Airfield², about 40 miles north of London, before coming to rest.

在发布于YouTube的一段视频中可以看到，在飞行器的前端触到地面时，观众在喊，“天哪，他落地了。”此前，它在伦敦以北40英里处的卡丁顿机场(Cardington Airfield)上空经历了极其缓慢的降落过程，最终停了下来。

Hybrid³ Air Vehicles — the British developer of the 302-foot, 44,100-pound, helium-filled aircraft, which has a top cruising speed of about 90 miles an hour — said on Twitter that the crew members were “safe and well.”

这架氦气飞行器的英国制造商混合动力飞行器公司(Hybrid Air Vehicles)在Twitter上表示，飞行人员“安全无恙”。这架飞行器长302英尺（约合92米），重4.41万磅（约合2万公斤），最高巡航速度约为90英里/每小时。

“Airlander sustained damage on landing during today’s flight,” the company added, though “no damage was sustained midair.”

“在今天的飞行中，天空登陆者在落地时遭到损坏，”公司还表示，但它“在半空中没有受损”。

The first test flight of the Airlander 10 was postponed⁴ on Aug. 14 after Stephen McGlennan, the chief executive of Hybrid Air Vehicles, said the airship had “a slight technical issue.” It completed its initial test flight three days later.

混合动力飞行器首席执行官史蒂芬•麦克格伦南(Stephen McGlennan)在8月14日推迟了“天空登陆者10号”第一次试飞的时间，表示这艘飞艇有个“小技术问题”需要解决。三天后，它完成了首次试飞。

On Wednesday morning, however, spectators watched as the ship slowly nose-dived and made an unplanned landing on its cockpit. The company did not provide an explanation as to why the aircraft had come down.

然而，周三早上，观众却看到这艘飞艇在缓慢地俯身下落，意外地以底部的驾驶舱触地着陆。公司没有解释飞行器为何会掉下来。

“It was going so well,” said Angela Hatwell, who posted several photographs of the aircraft on Facebook and described the airship’s flight as an “absolutely amazing sight.”

“它正飞得好好的，”安杰拉•哈特韦尔(Angela Hatwell)说。她在Facebook上发布了好几张飞行器的图片，还把它的飞行描述为“极其令人惊叹的景象”。

“It was awful to watch,” she wrote of the crash.

“看起来挺可怕，”她在描述飞行器的意外着陆时写道。

One of Ms. Hartwell’s photographs showed the pilots in what appeared to be a damaged cockpit. “It just appeared to crumple⁵ up,” she wrote. “Luckily they appeared to walk away uninjured.”

从哈特韦尔发布的其中一张照片看，飞行员所在的驾驶舱似乎有损伤。“它就好像被压瘪了，”她写道。“幸运的是，他们好像没有受伤。”

The Airlander 10 was initially⁶ a project developed for the United States military, and Hybrid Air Vehicles has said the airship could stay airborne for up to five days at a time with someone on board and for two weeks when flown remotely.

“天空登陆者10号”最初是为美国军方研发的一个项目。混合动力飞行器公司曾表示，在载人的情况下，这艘飞艇一次可以在空中停留五天，遥控飞行则可以持续两周。