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DocumentOfficial finding1 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC

ICAO GADSS tracking standards

Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System · post-MH370

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The regulatory aftershock: aircraft must report position at least every 15 minutes in normal flight, and more often in distress, so a 777 cannot again fly dark for six hours unnoticed.

ICAO’s GADSS work, accelerated after MH370 and AF447’s recorder lessons, requires airline operators to track aeroplanes at 15-minute intervals over remote areas and to increase the rate in distress. Autonomous distress tracking and better flight-recorder recoverability (ULB duration, deployable recorders in some proposals) are part of the same package. GADSS does not find MH370; it is the industry admitting that a 2014-era 777 could leave the ATC picture and remain electrically alive without anyone on the ground knowing where it was.

Sources

  • ICAO GADSS / Annex 6 tracking standards

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