A NEW plan forcing all airlines to track their aircraft using a system to provide location updates may materialise as soon as 2016, as a majority of ICAO member states threw their support behind it at a summit on Wednesday.
AFP reported that most of the UN aviation body’s 191 members green-lighted the proposal and are keen on having the plan implemented in the shortest time possible.
The new system will allow airlines to monitor the positions of their aircraft at 15 minute intervals, which escalate to every minute during emergencies.
The proposal is due to be ratified in November this year by the ICAO Council, said the sameAFP report.
Delegates in attendance at the summit also agreed to the creation of a single repository that would contain warnings on flying over war zones to overcome the fragmentated distribution of information that currently exists.
The proposals come in the wake of what was one of the worst years for modern aviation, marked by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines’ MH370 and MH17’s downing over a war zone in Ukraine. MH370 has not been found and the Malaysian government has since declared it an accident with no survivors.
