Aviation safety debate rages in wake of Flight MH370 mystery

Flight MH370's unexplained loss over the South China Sea a year ago has spurred a major safety initiative that will have a profound impact on the aviation industry.

The commitment to increased monitoring of aircraft came after soul searching among governments, airlines and regulators under pressure to act on safety.

It is the first set of measures rolled out after the UN's global aviation summit last month - only the second safety conference in its 70-year history.

Trials are now underway between Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia on a flight tracking system that makes contact with air traffic controllers every 15 minutes, down from the hourly monitoring at present.

The decisions embody a difficult legacy from the tragedy of MH370, in which 239 passengers were lost and presumed dead, and are an attempt to ensure a similar disappearance does not happen again.

However, enhanced tracking was "not a silver bullet," warned Airservices Australia chairman Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who led Australia's search efforts for MH370. Plenty more safety measures are pending agreement. Action has yet to be taken on shortcomings in emergency locater transmitters, on recommending longer battery life for the pingers in black boxes, on extending the duration of the cockpit voice recorders and on discussions about deployable and detectable black boxes that can stream data.