Airlines await instructions on jet tracking

With no specific implementation date and technical details prescribed by the Director General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA), aviation experts and even airline operators are unsure when the regulations related to real- time tracking of planes from departure to arrival, would be put into practice in India.

In the aftermath of MH370 incident, aviation organisations across the world have advocated online tracking of planes. Even in India, the DGCA has instructed all operators of commercial flights to use suitable means to track all their aircraft engaged in the carriage of passengers/ cargo from departure to arrival, to ensure real- time tracking.

As per civil aviation requirements ( CAR), the operator must ensure realtime flight tracking using the automatic dependent surveillance– broadcast ( ADS- B) if the aircraft communications address- ing and reporting system ( ACARS), a digital datalink used for transmission of short messages between aircraft and ground stations, is not available.

Aviation expert, Capt. A. Ranganathan, said the main problem with DGCA is that they come out with several ideas but lack in actual implementation. “For strict compliance, the DGCA should have used the right words in the CAR. But they always leave a loophole for the airlines,” he added.

He said, “When you say recommendatory, as in the case of ICAO guidelines, even the DGCA and the AAI do not follow it. Airlines will claim that it is not mandatory.”

Capt. Ranganathan also asked that when airlines are trying to cut costs by restricting manpower, how would they invest in people to monitor realtime tracking.

When contacted, a senior official in the national carrier, Air India, said there had been no talk on realtime tracking after DGCA’s instruction early this month.

“It should be a holistic policy. The technicalities need to be worked out,” the official said. According to him, implementation of real- time tracking would also depend on feasibility and the cost factor.

“New aircraft will be equipped with the latest communication systems. But we need to check the feasibility in fitting these equipment on board smaller planes,” the official added.