A decade after MH370, will the world finally heed Malaysia’s call for real-time tracking of planes?

Malaysian crash investigators had proposed early on for commercial aircraft to be outfitted with real-time tracking systems to help planes in distress

Experts say that even if airlines adopt the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System, cost and lack of enforcement remain ‘the real blind spot’

Reading Time:5 minutes

Relatives of missing MH370 passengers at a remembrance ceremony in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on March 7, 2020, to mark the sixth anniversary of the plane’s disappearance. The aircraft went missing on March 8, 2014. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 12:30pm, 1 Mar 2024Updated: 3:49pm, 8 Mar 2024

When Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in the predawn hours of March 8, 2014, o one at the time had any idea how to go about finding the missing aircraft.

It’s a nightmare that hasn’t ended for the families of all 277 passengers and 12 crew who were on board the Boeing 777 aircraft; the plane remains missing 10 years on and experts can only continue to guess at where it could be in the largely uncharted depths of the Indian Ocean where it is presumed to have crashed.

Key to the difficulties surrounding tracking MH370’s flight path is the fact that the plane’s transponder – responsible for sending regular location updates – was manually switched off just over an hour after taking off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing.

A man whose mother was on the missing MH370 wears a cap which reads “Pray for Blessing MH370” in Beijing in November 2023. Photo: AP

In the early days of the search, Malaysian crash investigators proposed that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) consider making it mandatory for commercial aircraft to be outfitted with real-time tracking systems to make sure there is enough information on hand to locate planes in distress in a timely manner.

“The significance of the MH370 disappearance is that it disappeared – when most people would expect a large civilian airliner to be under constant surveillance, this one has eluded detection for 10 years now,” said Keith Tonkin, managing director of Australian-based aviation planning and risk consultancy Aviation Projects.

But a decade on, the aviation industry is still nowhere near full adoption of a system like the one proposed by Malaysia.

In a preliminary report submitted to the ICAO a month after MH370’s disappearance, the Malaysian Air Accident Investigation Bureau said it would not be possible to accurately pinpoint the plane’s last known location due to the lack of regular updated information on its route.