Real time tracking of aircraft will become a reality from November next year after a deal was struck on using satellites to track aircraft planes. There has been an industry wide push for such technology to be implemented after the disappearance of MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on March 8th last year.
Had live aircraft tracking been available and compulsory MH370 probabaly would have found within a month of its disappearance.
Representatives from over 160 countries agreed to dedicate a radio frequency for the satellite tracking of aircraft at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva on Wednesday.
The conference was set up by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
This will allow “real-time tracking of aircraft anywhere in the world,” said Francois Rancy, head of the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau.
Aircraft will send their position every 15 minutes and more often in an emergency.
The disappearance of MH370 exposed serious weaknesses in worldwide air navigation systems which left 70 per cent of the world’s airspace uncovered.
Following Wednesday’s decision, ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao said the agency had “responded in record time to the expectations of the global community on the major issue concerning global flight tracking.”
