'It's going
to make, I think, the monitoring of aircraft over these oceanic areas much more
effective'
Jakarta Globe – AFP, Mar 01, 2015
 |
| Indonesia Search And Rescue vessel navigation tools display a searching spot area in the Indian Ocean during a s search operation for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane flight MH370 on March 15, 2014. (EPA Photo) |
Sydney.
Australia on Sunday said it was trialling a “world first” system with Malaysia
and Indonesia that increases the tracking of aircraft over remote oceans,
allowing authorities to quickly react to abnormal situations such as the
disappearance of MH370.
It raises
the minimum tracking rate for planes flying over remote oceans to 15 minutes
from current intervals of 30 to 40 minutes.
The
technology “can increase realtime monitoring should an abnormal situation
arise,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.
“In a world
first, all three countries will trial a new method of tracking aircraft through
the skies over remote oceanic areas,” Truss told reporters.
“Now this
initiative adapts existing technology used by more than 90 percent of long-haul
passenger aircraft and would see air traffic control able to respond more
rapidly should an aircraft experience difficulty or deviation from its flight
plan.”
The
announcement came ahead almost a year after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370
went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board
last March. A massive air and underwater search failing to find any evidence of
the plane.
While the
system was “not a silver bullet,” it would help to improve current methods of
tracking ahead of other solutions being developed, Airservices Australia
chairman Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said.
If an
aircraft deviates more than 200 feet from its assigned level or two nautical
miles from its expected track, the system would automatically monitor the jet
more closely, such as every five minutes or almost continuously, he added.
“This is a
big step forward. It’s not just changing things, it’s going to make, I think,
the monitoring of aircraft over these oceanic areas much more effective,” the
head of the air traffic control body said.
“We will
have a datum close to where the aircraft ran into trouble, which is in marked
contrast to MH370 where the last known position was in the Malacca Straits.”
The trial,
using automatic dependent surveillance contract (ADSC) technology, will
commence at the air traffic services center in the eastern city of Brisbane
before being extended to Melbourne in the country’s south and to Indonesia and
Malaysia.
Long-haul
jets that use the existing technology include wide-bodied planes such as
Boeing’s 380, 777, 330, 340 and 350 models, Truss said.
Agence France-Presse
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