There is no shortage of theories about what may have happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Some turn the flight crew of the Boeing 777-200ER into heroes battling and eventually succumbing to an onboard fire. Others paint them as hijackers and kidnappers stealing off with a commercial aircraft and hundreds of hostages. Veracity of such speculation aside, they all point to one problem—the futility of tracking transoceanic aircraft across international borders when their data transmission systems and transponders cease to function.
Modern technology tends to evoke feelings that Big Brother is always watching. The unsolved mystery of Flight 370, however, makes clear that Big Brother does not exist in the sky—long-haul passenger aircraft are at the mercy of a coordinated air-traffic control system that relies on a series of handoffs across independently monitored “flight information regions” to get passengers safely to their destination. Aircraft are equipped with technology that automatically communicates certain information, but this coordination works best there is regular communication between the cockpit and air traffic control.
As defined by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization, a flight information region is an expanse of airspace within which an aircraft receives basic levels of air traffic service, including information about weather and potentially conflicting air traffic. Larger countries are typically divided into multiple regions, whereas some small countries’ entire airspace fits in a single region.
The area where air traffic control lost contact with Flight 370 the morning of March 8 as it flew 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing is a patchwork of regions controlled by different countries. For nearly two weeks, investigators from 26 countries have helped Malaysia look for the plane without success.
Although it is difficult to trace Flight 370’s route exactly because the aircraft’s transponder and secondary radar went silent after about an hour into its journey, several sources report the 777 turned westward from its route to Beijing near the border of several different flight information regions. These regions are maintained by Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, respectively. Authorities learned several hours after the fact that Flight 370 had changed its heading to fly across northern Malaysia toward the Strait of Malacca. The latest reports about the aircraft’s fate revolves around large pieces of debris reportedly spotted via satellite imagery in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometers from the aircraft’s original destination. Search teams have yet to confirm whether the objects in the images are from the China-bound flight, however.
The aviation industry has for the past several years been developing technology to address the inability of air traffic controllers and the airlines themselves to remain in constant contact with aircraft on long flights over the ocean. One of the more promising innovations is satellite-based automated dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS–B) equipment. ADS–B relies on communication between global positioning system (GPS) satellites and transponders placed on board aircraft to inform pilots, other aircraft and air traffic controllers about an aircraft's location, identity, speed and altitude. ADS–B continuously collects and transmits information, whereas radar emits electromagnetic waves at regular intervals.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been pushing adoption of ADS-B as part of the agency’s Next Generation Air Transportation System program for years, although the technology is still not mainstream. The FAA is hoping ADS–B “will move air traffic control from a radar-based system to a satellite-derived aircraft location system,” according to the May 28, 2010 Federal Register, which states aircraft operating in most U.S. airspaces must have ADS-B by 2020. (pdf)
Aircraft operating in European Union airspace must have ADS-B by 2017, and new aircraft built beginning 2015 must be equipped with the technology. (pdf) Several other countries, including Australia, Singapore and Vietnam, have already begun to require certain aircraft to have ADS-B when flying in certain parts of their airspace.
Read more: Mysterious Malaysia Air Flight 370 Highlights Flaws in Aircraft Tracking - Scientific American
Some turn the flight crew of the Boeing 777-200ER into heroes battling and eventually succumbing to an onboard fire. Others paint them as hijackers and kidnappers stealing off with a commercial aircraft and hundreds of hostages. Veracity of such speculation aside, they all point to one problem—the futility of tracking transoceanic aircraft across international borders when their data transmission systems and transponders cease to function.
Modern technology tends to evoke feelings that Big Brother is always watching. The unsolved mystery of Flight 370, however, makes clear that Big Brother does not exist in the sky—long-haul passenger aircraft are at the mercy of a coordinated air-traffic control system that relies on a series of handoffs across independently monitored “flight information regions” to get passengers safely to their destination. Aircraft are equipped with technology that automatically communicates certain information, but this coordination works best there is regular communication between the cockpit and air traffic control.
As defined by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization, a flight information region is an expanse of airspace within which an aircraft receives basic levels of air traffic service, including information about weather and potentially conflicting air traffic. Larger countries are typically divided into multiple regions, whereas some small countries’ entire airspace fits in a single region.
The area where air traffic control lost contact with Flight 370 the morning of March 8 as it flew 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing is a patchwork of regions controlled by different countries. For nearly two weeks, investigators from 26 countries have helped Malaysia look for the plane without success.
Although it is difficult to trace Flight 370’s route exactly because the aircraft’s transponder and secondary radar went silent after about an hour into its journey, several sources report the 777 turned westward from its route to Beijing near the border of several different flight information regions. These regions are maintained by Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, respectively. Authorities learned several hours after the fact that Flight 370 had changed its heading to fly across northern Malaysia toward the Strait of Malacca. The latest reports about the aircraft’s fate revolves around large pieces of debris reportedly spotted via satellite imagery in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometers from the aircraft’s original destination. Search teams have yet to confirm whether the objects in the images are from the China-bound flight, however.
The aviation industry has for the past several years been developing technology to address the inability of air traffic controllers and the airlines themselves to remain in constant contact with aircraft on long flights over the ocean. One of the more promising innovations is satellite-based automated dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS–B) equipment. ADS–B relies on communication between global positioning system (GPS) satellites and transponders placed on board aircraft to inform pilots, other aircraft and air traffic controllers about an aircraft's location, identity, speed and altitude. ADS–B continuously collects and transmits information, whereas radar emits electromagnetic waves at regular intervals.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been pushing adoption of ADS-B as part of the agency’s Next Generation Air Transportation System program for years, although the technology is still not mainstream. The FAA is hoping ADS–B “will move air traffic control from a radar-based system to a satellite-derived aircraft location system,” according to the May 28, 2010 Federal Register, which states aircraft operating in most U.S. airspaces must have ADS-B by 2020. (pdf)
Aircraft operating in European Union airspace must have ADS-B by 2017, and new aircraft built beginning 2015 must be equipped with the technology. (pdf) Several other countries, including Australia, Singapore and Vietnam, have already begun to require certain aircraft to have ADS-B when flying in certain parts of their airspace.
Read more: Mysterious Malaysia Air Flight 370 Highlights Flaws in Aircraft Tracking - Scientific American
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