Kepping Track
Two tragic airline losses in the last decade highlight the huge difference between pilot or crash-activated distress alerting, such as provided by ELTs and PLBs, and aircraft monitoring and tracking. In the case of the latter, information needs to be routinely available all the time, not just when an incident occurs.
In 2009, Air France flight 477, an Airbus A330, stalled and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after erroneous airspeed indications were presented to the flight crew. Five years later, a Boeing 777, Malaysian Airlines flight 370, simply disappeared, prompting an extensive, fruitless search, with little factual information ever emerging as to the cause.
ICAO responded to these two tragedies with a new standard for aircraft tracking and distress alerting, known as the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS). GADSS is a ground-breaking development because it recognises that distress alerting, on its own, is not sufficient in an emergency, when the aircraft is beyond the reach of air traffic control facilities.
“distress alerting, on its own, is not sufficient in an emergency”
ICAO Annex 6 Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) now provide for airline operators to have the capability to track the position of their aircraft at least once every 15 minutes and optionally more frequently during abnormal operations. GADSS must be independent of aircraft power, not isolatable and capable of being activated remotely. GADSS applies to all new aircraft with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) greater than 27,000 kg and is recommended
