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After the baffling disappearance in March of Flight MH370, critics accused the aviation industry of "dithering" over equipping jets with real-time tracking systems. Now, with another passenger plane lost, the call for action is becoming more insistent.
Tracking aircraft by satellite and live-streaming of black box data were cited as top priorities by industry insiders after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people on board. Its fate remains a mystery despite a long underwater search west of Australia. Members of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)—the UN's aviation body—agreed in the aftermath of the incident to mandate real-time tracking.
But they did not set a timeline as airlines mulled the additional costs involved. Many carriers have been losing money for years. Now, with the apparent loss of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 on Sunday off Indonesia, the calls for immediate changes have returned with vehemence.
http://phys.org/news/2014-12-airasia-fuels-real-time-tracking.html
[Related]: http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2014/12/iata-no-silver-bullet-solution-on-tracking-in-wake-of-mh370/
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday December 31 2014, @12:56AM
Some poor or unordered countries have problems with keeping their airlines in order.
Flying over war zones
The week of MH17, the following airlines (not exhaustive) flew over the Ukraine
* Lufthansa (Germany)
* Singapore
* Thai
* Air India
* Jet (India)
* Qatar
* Emirates (UAE)
* United (USA)
* Virgin (UK)
* FedEx (USA)
There's a skew towards SEA, India and European carriers for obvious geographical reasons -- Ukraine isn't on the flight path for many flights from the U.S or Japan.
pushing pilots
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/02/21/pilots-reported-fatigue-erred-ups-jet-crash/pEu9NkHAqHklDk5swrCA5J/story.html [bostonglobe.com]
"WASHINGTON — The pilots of a UPS cargo jet that crashed last August complained about the company’s tiring work schedules at the start of the fatal flight, and then made errors shortly before the plane flew into a hillside and burst into flames, according to information presented at a hearing Thursday."
or just plain bad weather.
Countries with flights crashing during bad weather in the last 10 years:
Lao, Congo, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, Iraq. It's not exactly common.
using Airbus with known pilot tube (wind speed) defects
I'm not aware the A320 family has any such known defects, but I'll be sure to tell the U.S. pilot on US588 on Sunday about it.
Of the 3 major plane incidents this year, 2 were Boeing, 1 was airbus.
U.S. carriers with Airbus planes:
AA (+US), Delta, United, Jet Blue, Spirit. In fact the only U.S. national airline I could find without a sizeable airbus fleet was Alaska.
(Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Wednesday December 31 2014, @01:16AM
Did those airline companies fly over the eastern part of Ukraine?
That UPS does some bad mistakes is perhaps something that won't kill many passengers..
Bad weather means avoiding flights in some regions at specific times. Or when bad weather is announced. Some areas just suffer way more from this than others.
According to a previous article comment [soylentnews.org]:
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday December 31 2014, @09:38AM
An a330 is to an a320 as a 777 is to a 757
And yes all those airlines flew over Donetsk.far more were flying over Isis occupied Iraq.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday December 31 2014, @05:36PM
"far more were flying over Isis occupied Iraq"
Airlines seems reckless..