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Plane debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion is seen on July 30, 2015. It was later confirmed to be one of the few pieces of wreckage ever found of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photo: TNS

‘Revolution in the skies’: UK and Canada launch satellite-based plane tracking system, in bid to avert another MH370

  • The mysterious disappearance of MH370 five years ago spurred the development of the system
  • The technology allows planes to be tracked anywhere on Earth, but will first be employed over the North Atlantic

A satellite air traffic surveillance system capable of tracking aircraft anywhere around the planet has been launched.

The system, which will start by tracking planes over the North Atlantic, has been developed to fill the holes in radar coverage – some 70 per cent of global airspace – that became apparent following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 five years ago.

A man passes a mural of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Ampang, outside Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

UK and Canadian air traffic control services will be the first to try out the system.

“For the first time in history, we can surveil all ADS-B-equipped aircraft anywhere on Earth,” said Don Thoma, chief executive of Aireon, the firm which has developed the new system.

Automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B), which is used in the US and other airspace, automatically determines a plane’s location by satellite and broadcasts it. Planes will now be able to update constantly anywhere on Earth, by using the 66 satellites in the Iridium satellite constellation, enabling real-time tracking worldwide.

Most modern passenger jets – including the Boeing 777 of flight MH370 – are fitted with the transponders. The planes have until now broadcast their position every 10 to 15 minutes via satellite when flying over the ocean, with a single, short data transmission.

Thoma said the new system would “radically optimise flight safety and efficiency”.

As well as improving safety, tracking planes across ocean airspace that was previously invisible to controllers will allow airlines to fly more efficiently, Aireon said. It claimed that could save airlines up to US$300 and two tonnes of CO2 emissions on every transatlantic flight.

Air traffic controllers expect to fit more planes into the busy Atlantic corridors, where flights have had to follow set routes at set speeds and heights to ensure safety. Traffic is predicted to grow by more than 50 per cent in the next decade from about 500,000 transatlantic flights per year. Some 95 per cent of that traffic is already equipped with ADS-B technology, which will become mandatory in the US and Europe next year.

A relative of passengers from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 outside the Foreign Ministry in Beijing on March 8, on the fifth anniversary of the plane's disappearance. Photo: AFP

Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of the UK’s air traffic control service, NATS – an investor in Aireon – said it was a “revolution in the skies”. He said: “We’ve gone from seeing aircraft positions every 14 minutes to every eight seconds.”

In the wake of the MH370 disaster, the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation mandated that all passenger jets should be fitted with transponders, that would function throughout a flight, by 2020.

The Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, after taking off from Kuala Lumpur headed for Beijing with 239 people on board, and has never been located. It is believed to have gone down in the southern Indian Ocean.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: UK and Canada launch satellite-based flight tracking
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