Radio Brisvaani
The world is unlikely to ever again lose a passenger plane like Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 with airlines confident of meeting new mandated minute-by-minute tracking technology to be implemented by November.
The disappearance of the flight somewhere over the Southern Indian Ocean in March 2014 with the loss of 239 passengers and crew stunned the world with the airline’s resting place still not known, nor what happened to it despite extensive multinational investigations.
But speaking in Sydney ahead of a world airline industry summit this weekend, International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general Alexandre de Juniac said its more than 280 member airlines were set to have technology in place to prevent “disappearances”.
“No,” Mr de Juniac said when asked if the world would again see a plane vanish.
“We have a tracking system which will be implemented in November 2018 in six months from now and all airlines are ready for that.
“In 2021, first of January, all new aircraft will be equipped with a new tracking system reporting every minute when there is a distress.
“So normally no, it should not happen again.”
The new IATA boss, in Australia to hold the industry body’s annual general meeting, said like the public, the aviation industry was still stunned the fate of MH370 remained a mystery.
“No one believed that because I am the head of IATA that I don’t know what happened to MH370,” he said.
“I have to tell them ‘no I can assure you, I can swear I do not know’ and nobody knows, it’s unbelievable for people. Where is it?”
He said as a former CEO of Air France-KLM he knew the responsibility airline chiefs had for air safety.
“Every minute of every day it’s like a red light blinking in your brain,” he said.
He said traditionally airlines relied on the result of a crash to guide safety efforts but in an age of big data he said IATA was taking a leading role on audit data collection to identify risks before accidents.
Under the new Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) mandated tracking requirements every aircraft over a certain weight will automatically report its position every 15 minutes or every minute when the aircraft is in distress, determined by unusual behaviour likely to lead to its loss.
Some airlines have already implemented tracking requirements including Malaysian Airlines, Qantas Airways and Singapore Airlines.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau welcomed the introduction of the mandated rules but has questioned whether they would go far enough with 15 minutes between pings still likely to create enormous search areas, potentially up to 170,000 square kilometres.
That still would place passengers from a downed aircraft at risk of a late rescue.
