PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia Airlines aircraft are now being tracked by at least 10-minute intervals, confirmed the Department of Civil Aviation.
Its director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said Boeing 777 aircraft would automatically report to MAS every 15 minutes while other planes would report every 10 minutes.
“MAS, on its own initiative, has lessened the time of reporting of the aircraft communications and reporting system (ACARS),” he told reporters here yesterday.
“Boeing 777 is now being reported every 15 minutes (while) the A330, A380 and 737-400 are being reported every 10 minutes.”
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), said Azharuddin, had previously encouraged its members to come up with their own real-time tracking systems.
The ICAO is expected to finalise a standard for real-time tracking by Aug 31 this year, with a roll-out from 2016 onwards.
Azharuddin said there was also a cooperation among Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia for a 10-minute real-time tracking system – cockpit pilot data link communication (CPDLC) system – that was being tried out in Qantas and Virgin Blue aircraft.
On the MH370 interim report, Azharuddin said in accordance with ICAO protocols, an interim statement had to be issued on the anniversary of the accident each year so long as an investigation report had not been finalised.
Related stories:
‘Govt committed to finding MH370’
Lessons learnt from MH370 search
Global appetite for MH370 search
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