Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia are to try a new method of tracking planes, almost a year after a Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, carrying 239 people, disappeared en route Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The trial system enables planes to be tracked every 15 minutes, an increase on the current 30 to 40 minutes.
Extensive search has been carried out to contact the flight MH370, since it disappeared in March 2014.
The new tracking device uses technology already installed on most long-haul jets.
The system is expected to increase the tracking rate to five minutes or less if there is any deviation from a plane’s expected route.
‘No silver bullet’
Australian Transport Minister, Warren Truss, said the new system was a “world first”. But he stressed the new technology would not necessarily have solved the mystery of MH370.
“It would have been very difficult, one would imagine, without knowing what precisely occurred in the case of flight MH370, to have intervened from outside,” he said.
“But at least it would have tracked the aircraft to within 15 minutes.”
Airservices Australia Chairman Angus Houston, who helped lead the search for the missing MH370, agreed it was “no silver bullet”.
“But it is an important step in delivering immediate improvements to the way we currently track aircraft while more comprehensive solutions are developed,” Angus Houston added.
The trial will begin in the Australian city of Brisbane before being extended to Indonesia and Malaysia.
Investigators searching for flight MH370 are focusing on an area of the Indian Ocean off the coast of western Australia.
Flight MH370, which is said to be operating a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu.
