Plane-tracking system to get trial after Malaysia mystery

SYDNEY – Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia will lead a trial to enhance the tracking of aircraft over remote oceans, allowing planes to be more easily found should they vanish like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australia’s transport minister said today.

The announcement comes one week ahead of the anniversary of the disappearance of Flight 370, which vanished last year on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. No trace of the plane has been found.

Airservices Australia, a government-owned agency that manages the country’s airspace, will work with its Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts to test the new method, which would enable planes to be tracked every 15 minutes, rather than the previous rate of 30 to 40 minutes, Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss said. The tracking would increase to five minutes or less if there is a deviation in the plane’s movements.

The trial is expected to use satellite-based positioning technology already on board 90 percent of long-haul aircraft, said Airservices Australia chairman Angus Houston.

“This is not a silver bullet,” Houston told reporters in the nation’s capital, Canberra. “But it is an important step in delivering immediate improvements to the way we currently track aircraft while more comprehensive solutions are developed.”