Flight International - January 13, 2015

THIS WEEK

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THIS WEEK P

I

nvestigators are moving closer
to determining what caused the
crash of Indonesia AirAsia flight
QZ8501, having located the Air-
bus A320’s tail section and some
fuselage sections.
Located by Indonesia’s nation-
al search and rescue agency Ba-
sarnas, the tail section is where
the aircraft’s cockpit voice re-
corder and flight data recorder
are installed.
“If [it is the] right part of [the] tail
section, then the black box should
be there,” AirAsia group chief
Tony Fernandes said following the
discovery. Search teams had until
that point been unable to detect
any pings from either recorder, and
their location by divers at a 30m
depth was being hindered by ex-
tremely poor visibility.

I

CAO is set to propose the im-
plementation of short-term
measures for routine aircraft
tracking, following recommenda-
tions for 15min position updates
put forward by an IATA task force
last November.
The task force’s efforts have
been highlighted by ICAO in a
paper prepared for a high-level
safety conference to be held in
Montreal next month. Participants
will be invited to note the team’s
conclusions and recommend that
the organisation promote and fa-
cilitate routine aircraft tracking
“as a matter of priority”, the docu-
ment states. The proposal repre-
sents “an important first step” to
laying a foundation for aircraft
tracking development, it adds.
ICAO will also present its con-
cept of operations document for a
Global Aeronautical Distress and
Safety System, identifying multi-
ple weaknesses in current track-
ing, alerting and search-and-res-
cue capabilities.
Technology such as contracted
automatic dependent surveil-

CRASH AARON CHONG & GREG WALDRON SINGAPORE

Tail location offers QZ8501 data hope

Group chief Tony Fernandes defends AirAsia schedule as search teams discover A320 parts that may contain black box

By 8 January, search teams had

recovered 44 bodies from the air-

craft, which crashed into the Java

Sea in bad weather on 28 Decem-

ber while carrying 155 passen-

gers and seven crew.

Jakarta’s transport ministry on

2 January suspended Indonesia

AirAsia’s operation of the Sura-

baya-Singapore route, saying the

carrier had violated operational

procedures by flying without per-

mission on a Sunday.

Fernandes defended his air-

line, saying it had the rights to fly

the route seven days a week. “We

have secured slots as well as ap-

proval from both Indonesia and

Singapore. What happened was

purely an administration error,”

he says, while welcoming the

transport ministry’s evaluation of

coordination between the slot co-

ordinator and airports.

“The process has become clear

now,” he says. “I also recom-

mend what is being implemented

in Singapore; an integrated com-

puterised system so that every-

one is on the same page.” ■

Wreckage from the crashed Airbus continues to be recovered

A task force has recommended

routine 15min position updates

Routine aircraft tracking moves closer to realisation

SAFETY DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

lance (ADS-C) could provide a

near-term tracking path, although

not all air navigation providers

offer the service. Air France flight

AF447, lost over the South Atlan-

tic in June 2009, had 15min

ADS-C capability but – owing to

flight-plan format errors – was

unable to log-on to the oceanic air

traffic control system operated at

Senegal’s Dakar centre.

While 15min position updates

would be regular, they would still

potentially leave a large region of

uncertainty over a possible crash

location. At a typical cruise speed

of 470kt (870km/h), an aircraft

would travel over 100nm

(185km) in the interval.

Some carriers have modified

the ACARS addressing system to

provide 10min position updates,

along with trigger notification of

unplanned flight-profile devia-

tions. Analysis of a position re-

port and maintenance messages

sent using this method helped to

narrow the search area for

AF447, but still left a circle with a

40nm radius.

Automatic position broadcast,

through ADS-B, has long been

available as a tracking mecha-

nism, but relies on ground stations

to receive transmissions. Space-

based infrastructure will enable

such data to be relayed from oce-

anic and remote regions using 66

Iridium satellites, ICAO notes.

“Although the fee structure for

the service has not been final-

ised, it is foreseen that it will be

provided at a significantly lower

cost than would be required to

expand or install and maintain a

ground-based surveillance infra-

structure,” says a presentation

prepared by Canadian-led part-

nership Aireon. This expects to

have space-based ADS-B capa-

bility available from 2017, and

has offered to provide aircraft

tracking data to rescue organisa-

tions free of charge in the event

of an emergency.

However, while ICAO and

IATA are promoting the develop-

ment of flight-tracking capabili-

ties, the issue of deliberate de-ac-

tivation – suspected in the

unsolved disappearance of Ma-

laysia Airlines flight MH370 – re-

mains unresolved.

“From a safety perspective, all

electrical components on board

an aircraft must have the ability

to have their power source inter-

rupted in the event of an electri-

cal system malfunction or fire,”

IATA’s task force says. “While

these types of operational and

safety-related events are rare, the

fact remains that equipment on

board aircraft can be disabled.” ■

Rex Features

Rex Features