Joint trial on new tracking for aircraft

Surveillance system more frequent

AUSTRALIA is joining Indonesia and Malaysia in trialling a new method for tracking aircraft over remote oceanic areas.

Airservices Australia, along with its Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts, will test the method that tracks aircraft every 15 minutes, compared with 30 to 40 minutes at present.

It will use existing technology fitted to 90 per cent of long-haul aircraft.

The new measures come after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 almost a year ago.

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board.

No firm evidence of the plane has turned up, despite a continuing Australian-led se- arch of the supposed crash region — the most expensive search and rescue operation in history.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss believes this new method of tracking would have triggered heightened surveillance of the doomed aircraft seven hours earlier, when it changed direction.

The technology — automatic dependent surveillance contract — transmits the aircraft’s position and the next two planned positions.

Airservices Australia chairman Angus Houston said the increase in frequency in which aircraft automatically reported this information would allow air traffic controllers to track the aircraft position with greater accuracy.

“This is not a silver bullet, but it is an important step in delivering immediate improvements to the way we currently track aircraft while more comprehensive solutions are developed,” Sir Angus said.

‘This is not a silver bullet, but it is an important step in delivering immediate improvements to the way we currently track

aircraft.’ SIR ANGUS HOUSTON

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