MH370: Aviation industry still conservative to adopt new technologies

The missing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 since March 8 has caused some quarters to question the communication technologies available, especially in a modern fleet such as the Boeing 777-200 which was used by MAS for its flight from KL to Beijing.

Speaking on Agenda AWANI, Managing Director of Altran Malaysia Fabrice Godeau said that although new technologies, such as real-time monitoring, is available but it would take some time before carriers are able to adopt such technologies.

“New technologies are available. In some cases, it is being slowly deployed. However, it take a long time to get certification for the equipment with a minimum of three to five years.

“It is not a mandatory technology and because the aviation is still a conservative industry, new technologies must be proven before it is used,” he said.

However, he said Malaysia is already at the forefront, with a local carrier already implementing its flight tracking technology.

“Few years back, we received a request for the ‘Flight Following’ for an airline. One of our customers adopted our technology to follow all of its entire fleets and to report on what is going on every three minutes,” he said.

Over time, Godeau said that the future of aviation will include a mandatory implementation of real-time monitoring.

In an earlier news report, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was puzzled why the Malaysian Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 is still unable to be tracked despite the advanced technology available today.

“I follow the development (search and rescue mission) and am puzzled that in a modern world with such advanced technology, we are still unable to track the 63-meter aircraft,” he said.

“But with the same technology, we can detect a human although he is just standing on a roadside,” he was quoted by Berita Harian.