ITU passes resolution to improve global tracking of commercial aircraft in real time

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s Plenipotentiary Conference on Friday, has endorsed Malaysia's call to improve global flight tracking for civil aviation, following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on March 8.

In a statement, ITU said the important resolution was passed at the conference held in Busan, South Korea.

The resolution adopted wants next year's World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) to consider global flight tracking in its agenda, besides instructing the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau director to submit a specific report on the matter in the upcoming conference, it said.

The specific report included the results of the studies carried out in the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) over the last two years and were being accelerated as a result of the resolution, it added.

It also said, following a call by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek at ITU's World Telecommunications Development Conference in Dubai last March for an international effort to find solutions to track commercial aircraft in real time, "representatives of international organisations, governments and trade associations met in Kuala Lumpur last May to explore global initiatives and current and future technological developments that could provide such solutions."

The statement said the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), in its special meeting on global flight tracking in Montreal, Canada last May had encouraged ITU to take urgent action to provide the necessary spectrum allocations for satellites to support emerging aviation needs.

Meanwhile, ITU secretary-general Hamadoun I. Toure, in welcoming the resolution said: "We join the families of the passengers in mourning the loss of lives on (board) MH370 and we must continue to make every effort at the international level to improve flight tracking for civil aviation."

The resolution would be brought to the attention of the WRC-15, as well as the ICAO, with whom ITU already had a strong framework of cooperation, he added.

On March 8, this year, Flight MH370, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, disappeared from the radar while over the South China Sea, about an hour after taking off from the KL International Airport at 12.41am.

The aircraft was scheduled to arrive in Beijing, China at 6.30am on the same day.

Efforts to locate Flight MH370 are ongoing but no firm evidence has been found, to date.

The flight path of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft is believed to have ended in the southern Indian Ocean.