I posted this a month ago and I feel the time has come to post it again:
OK, 4 weeks have passed since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. I have kept my own counsel until now, partly out of respect for the friends and relatives of the missing passengers and crew – I simply cannot begin to imagine the depths of their anguish and despair – partly because I wasn’t sure I had anything useful to add but I now feel that what I’ve got to say needs to be said.
For many years I was chairman of the Gulf Flight Safety Committee (an illustrious body that still continues its worthy business) and in 2008 I invited Andrew Burton of Indigosat to speak at one of our quarterly meetings in Dubai. He presented Indigosat’s real time aircraft satellite tracking systems and the managed services they offer to clients. These small devices could be fitted to most aircraft types after supplementary type certificate approval and the unit cost was then less than US$10,000.
The audience reception was somewhat lukewarm and Andrew challenged them by asking whether they each knew where all of their aircraft were all of the time – the answer was a resounding ‘YES’. The very next year they were proved wrong by the tragic events of Air France 447 over the equatorial Atlantic. I am not saying that a satellite tracking device would have led searchers directly to the wreckage but at least they would have known where it impacted the sea surface. Despite this wake-up call the industry has not moved on real time aircraft tracking – if they had perhaps we would know where MH370 and its occupants were today.
I know IATA and the Flight Safety Foundation have started a public debate on this topic and I am pretty sure that ICAO will eventually introduce relevant standards and recommended practices but this could take months if not years to achieve. I call upon the industry as a whole; manufacturers, insurers, financiers, operators, regulators and perhaps above all passengers to speak with a united voice and insist that effective, tamper-proof real time satellite tracking devices be fitted to all commercial transport aircraft right away – they are available on the shelf right now! Indigosat is now called Apex Flight Operations www.apexflightops.com and they tell me that the unit cost is now down to around US$1500 with approximately US$0.35 per hour of operation
And if anyone still complains about the cost let me tell you this: a small French charity I met through the World Food Programme has for some time had these trackers fitted to the two Cessna Caravans it operates in Central Africa. From his office in Paris or indeed anywhere he can get an internet connection, the boss can see at every moment exactly where his aircraft are and what they are doing. Let’s follow their example…
OK, 4 weeks have passed since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. I have kept my own counsel until now, partly out of respect for the friends and relatives of the missing passengers and crew – I simply cannot begin to imagine the depths of their anguish and despair – partly because I wasn’t sure I had anything useful to add but I now feel that what I’ve got to say needs to be said.
For many years I was chairman of the Gulf Flight Safety Committee (an illustrious body that still continues its worthy business) and in 2008 I invited Andrew Burton of Indigosat to speak at one of our quarterly meetings in Dubai. He presented Indigosat’s real time aircraft satellite tracking systems and the managed services they offer to clients. These small devices could be fitted to most aircraft types after supplementary type certificate approval and the unit cost was then less than US$10,000.
The audience reception was somewhat lukewarm and Andrew challenged them by asking whether they each knew where all of their aircraft were all of the time – the answer was a resounding ‘YES’. The very next year they were proved wrong by the tragic events of Air France 447 over the equatorial Atlantic. I am not saying that a satellite tracking device would have led searchers directly to the wreckage but at least they would have known where it impacted the sea surface. Despite this wake-up call the industry has not moved on real time aircraft tracking – if they had perhaps we would know where MH370 and its occupants were today.
I know IATA and the Flight Safety Foundation have started a public debate on this topic and I am pretty sure that ICAO will eventually introduce relevant standards and recommended practices but this could take months if not years to achieve. I call upon the industry as a whole; manufacturers, insurers, financiers, operators, regulators and perhaps above all passengers to speak with a united voice and insist that effective, tamper-proof real time satellite tracking devices be fitted to all commercial transport aircraft right away – they are available on the shelf right now! Indigosat is now called Apex Flight Operations www.apexflightops.com and they tell me that the unit cost is now down to around US$1500 with approximately US$0.35 per hour of operation
And if anyone still complains about the cost let me tell you this: a small French charity I met through the World Food Programme has for some time had these trackers fitted to the two Cessna Caravans it operates in Central Africa. From his office in Paris or indeed anywhere he can get an internet connection, the boss can see at every moment exactly where his aircraft are and what they are doing. Let’s follow their example…
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