Malaysia Recommends Real-Time Airplane Tracking

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The Malaysia Transport Ministry released its report regarding its investigation on the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 on Thursday. A part of the report is a recommendation for the International Civil Aviation Organization to “examine the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial air transport aircraft.

In the report, the ministry emphasized that commercial transport aircrafts spend a significant amount of time flying on remote areas, but there is no requirement for real-time tracking on those airplanes.

The ministry wrote, “There have now been two occasions during the last five years when large commercial air transport aircraft have gone missing and their last position was not accurately known. This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner.”

The ministry referred the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 and the Air France Flight AF447 in 2009. The Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board disappeared while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

Details of Malaysia Airplane MH370 investigation

Based on the report of the Malaysian Transport Ministry, the Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 went off from the Malaysia’s radar around 1:21 A.M. on March 8. Around 1:38 A.M. Vietnamese air traffic controllers made a query about the location of the aircraft. At around 5:30 AM, the ministry activated the Kuala Lumpur Rescue Coordination Center. Search and rescue operations were conducted in the South China Sea, the aircraft’s last known position.

According to the ministry, a playback from the recording from the military primary radar indicated a possibility that the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 made an air-turn back on a Westerly heading crossing Peninsular Malaysia, which led the ministry to extend its search and rescue to the straits of Malacca.

The ministry’s investigation eventually established that the Flight MH370 flew along either the Northern or Southern corridor based on the primary radar data and analysis of the satellite data as well as the aircraft performance data. Based on new developments, the ministry moved its search and rescue operation to the Northern and Southern Corridors. Further analysis indicated that the aircraft ended its flight in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.

There are currently 26 countries involved in the search and rescue operations for the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. The search and rescue operation is ongoing with 82 aircrafts and 84 vessels.

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