COMMENTARYThe events say little—if anything—
about the state of safety in Malaysia’s
or Asia’s air transport industry and
little—if anything—about a few other
issues that have been discussed in-
tensively since the Air Asia tragedy in
particular.
The number of casualties in air
transport was higher in 2014 than in
previous years. But there is no indica-
tion that it has become less safe to fly
statistically. In fact, the accident rate
continued to decline. The picture is also
skewed somewhat, because some of the
aircraft involved in crashes were very
large and almost fully occupied. There
was no overarching safety theme for the
year; the two worst crashes took place
in very unusual circumstances.
Since MH370, the industry and—
even more so—governments and
the general public have argued that
aircraft should be better tracked. With
modern communication technology in
place, there should be no reason not to
know where aircraft are at any given
time, goes the argument. While there
is nothing wrong with the push for bet-
ter tracking per se and the initiative
has its merits, there is a danger that
the debate will distract the industry
from other important issues.
That should be kept in mind as the
International Civil Aviation Organiza-
tion (ICAO) prepares for its summit
discussing aircraft tracking next
month. Proposals for how such a sys-L
ast year was truly tragic for airlines in Malaysia. In March,
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) disappeared; wreck-
age of the Boeing 777 has yet to be found. A few months later,
another Malaysian 777 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a
surface-to-air missile. And on Dec. 28, an Indonesia AirAsia Air-
bus A320 crashed on the way from Surabaya to Singapore. The
airline is a subsidiary of Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia.Learning
The Right Lessons
Flight-tracking initiatives should not distract
industry from crucial safety issues
tem could be phased in over the next
few years are on the table now and
sound like promising ideas.
However, the fact is, even the best
tracking technology would not have
kept MH370 safe. While better track-
ing may have helped find the wreckage
sooner, if the initiative’s aim is to find
out more about aircraft involved in
crashes more quickly, tracking alone is
not enough. Some sort of data stream-
ing is almost certainly a better option
or at least a necessary additional tool.
For now, the ICAO proposal includes
only the idea of automatically deploy-
ing on-board flight data recorder and
cockpit voice recorder (see photo)in the event of a crash, so that they
would be float rather than having to
be located underwater. With airlines
investing so much in inflight connectiv-
ity to provide passengers with Internet
access, the technical and financial
hurdles for streaming may be lower
than one might think. But, this merely
addresses how to deal with crashes
rather than preventing them.
Some, like Emirates President Tim
Clark, believe firmly that someone in
the cockpit of MH370 turned of the
transponder to make it impossible to
track the aircraft. How such security
breaches—if eventually confirmed—
can be prevented may be an even more
important initiative to pursue.
The AirAsia incident does nothing
to support the tracking argument. Air-
craft parts were found within a matter
of days and the cockpit voice and flight
data recorders relatively soon after-
ward, even though the aircraft went
down many miles of the Indonesian
coast. With the recording devices
recovered, over the next few days it is
likely that the information they provide
will point in new directions.
As with Air France 447 and Air
Algerie 5017, the AirAsia incident
appears to be the third major crash
within a few years involving seri-
ous weather and subsequent loss of
control. Sometimes in the aftermath of
crashes it can be more fruitful to look
at basics—like pilots’ flying skills—
rather than technological solutions
with more limited safety benefits. cAirline Intel
By Jens FlottauManaging Editor for Civil
Aviation Jens Flottau blogs at:
AviationWeek.com/thingswithwings
[email protected]AviationWeek.com/awst AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/JANUARY 15-FEBRUARY 1, 2015 15REUTERS/LANDOV