Indian civil aviation has issued new guidelines to air traffic operators for real time tracking of planes and aircrafts.

New Delhi, May 7/Nationalturk – With no sight of missing of Malaysian aircraft, Indian civil aviation has issued new guidelines to air traffic operators for real time tracking of planes and aircrafts.

India’s Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Dr Prabhat Kumar has issued guidelines to all air transport operators in the country in form of Air Safety Circular for real time tracking of aircrafts engaged in carrying  passengers and cargo from departure to arrival .

This is significant in view of the preliminary report released by Ministry of Transport, Malaysia into the accident of B777-200 aircraft 9M-MRO operating flight MH-370 on “March 8, 2014, which has revealed that the location of wreckage is still unknown due to the fact that there is no real time tracking of the aircraft.

It is now known that after Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) had stopped transmitting, the satellite communication system automatically transmitted seven messages that confirmed that the system was still logged onto the network.”

Air transport operators should use ACARS/ADS-B

DGCA has asked air transport operators  to use onboard Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) /Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) for real time tracking of aircrafts.

The operators have been told to ensure their serviceability before every departure of the flight.  Operators have also been advised to devise a procedure for effective tracking of the aircraft while flying over areas where there is no coverage of ACARS/ADS-B.

It said ACARS/ADS-B automatically detects and report changes to the flight phases (out of the gate, off the ground, on the ground and into the gate).

“It also helps interface with Flight Management System (FMS) for communication of flight plans and weather information from the ground station, which enables the airlines to update the FMS during flight and allows the flight crew to examine new weather conditions or alternative flight plans,”

ACRAS data significant in locating last position of aircraft

DGCA said adding, “ACRAS data is of great significance in locating the last position of the aircraft and launch search and rescue after it has met with an accident.”

It has asked operators to use all suitable means to track all its aircraft engaged in the carriage of passengers/cargo from departure (Chocks-off) to arrival (Chockson) so as to ensure real time tracking.

“Areas where there is no coverage of ACARS/ADS-B, operator should devise a procedure for effective tracking of the aircraft. While flying over such areas, the flight crew should report the aircraft coordinates, speed and altitude at an interval of not exceeding 15 minutes. Flight crew should immediately report to the ground station any intermittent behavior / unserviceability of ACARS/ADS-B during flight either using data link or voice message,” further read the guidelines.

DGCA said during the last five years, there have been two occasions when large commercial transport aircrafts went missing and their last position was not accurately known.

“While commercial air transport aircrafts spend considerable amount of time operating over remote areas, there is currently no international requirement for real time tracking of the aircraft.  This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner in both the cases. Such incidences as well as the recent Malaysian tragedy have prompted us to take necessary action,” DGCA added.

Write your comments and thoughts below

Asia News/ NationalTurk India News