How does a commercial airplane disappear in the 21st century?
Investigating how it is possible for a modern, commercial aircraft to disappear in the 21st century.Using Malaysia Flight MH370 and AirAsia flight 8501 as case studies.
After the recent Netflix documentary MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, I thought I’d dig out my EPQ paper I wrote while in college on the subject, so excuse the 8 year old style.
Abstract
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and AirAsia flight 8501, are two flights that went missing last year. In this report I will look at how a flight can go missing.
Even with radar, the equipment that is most used in tracking aircraft worldwide using a transmitted radio signal aimed by an antenna in a particular direction and a receiver that detects the echoes off any objects in the path of the signal; and transponders, the equipment that actually sends information back to the ground, in a series of 4 digit codes, aircraft can still go missing. Why new technologies such as GPS and ADS-B, that could remove the possibility of a plane going missing are not legally required?
What happened to Malaysia Airline flight 370 which disappeared over the Indian Ocean in the summer of 2014? How it still remains a mystery and how no-one knows what happened on board, or where it is now. Also AirAsia light 8501, a flight that was declared as missing, and then being recovered.
These two case studies will be used to formulate a conclusion on, ‘How does a commercial airplane disappear in the 21st century?’
Introduction
How does a commercial airplane disappear in the 21st century?
I primarily choose this title because of my intention to study aeronautical engineering at university. The particular focus on Malaysian Airlines flight 370 and AirAsia flight 8501 was chosen as they are both recent events and in the case of MH370 the aircraft has still not been found.
This project will look into how, with technologies such as Radar, ACARS, GPS and services such as Google Earth, such a highly technical piece of equipment as a commercial airliner can vanish and remain unfound, even after a major international search effort.
To be able to answer this I will analyse the equipment found on a commercial aircraft and understand how the aircraft is kept in contact with the ground and what limitations could explain how a commercial aircraft can disappear. I will look at cases such as AirAsia flight 8501, which after initially disappearing, has been found and recovered, to try and understand how these flights went missing. What caused the failure? Are there any patterns or links between events? I will also look into a flight that is still missing and unexplained, Malaysian Airlines flight 370.
Finally, I will discuss if there are any ways of reducing the chance of a commercial airplane disappearing and what has been learnt from these tragic incidences.
Research Review
To begin with my research was mainly focused on Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. For this I mainly used news websites and academic journals. The Website that I used was BBC News[1],which had a whole section entitled ‘Hunt For Malaysian Plane’. This gave me a very useful overview of what had happened to MH370 and a timeline of events, theories surrounding the disappearance, how a plane is tracked and information about the search for MH370. All of the articles on BBC News were useful as a general overview on the whole event, however were not written in as much detail as I required, mainly as the site is aimed at a very wide population and therefore is written for a wide audience understanding. However, the articles were very well-balanced providing insight and opinions from experts in the field of engineering and commercial airplanes. Furthermore, each article is regularly updated as more information is uncovered, and can thus be considered as current and accurate.
I then used the bibliography from Wikipedia, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370[2] as a means of finding some more articles on the subject. The first of which was an official release from the Malaysian Government entitled, ‘FACTUAL INFORMATION, SAFETY INVESTIGATION FOR MH370[3]’ This gave me an unbiased view of what happened to Malaysian Flight 370. It also gave me very useful facts that I was able to use throughout my study, and also gave me the ability to cross-check data from more un-reliable sources, such as news sites. This document was very useful in my investigation as it presents a very detailed overview of the events of MH370. It also led me to change my title to: How does a commercial airplane disappear in the 21st century? I decided to do this as I felt that much of the data found would mean focusing on more of a general question allowed me to look into more events.
After deciding to alter my title I decided to I researched into more specific areas such as how a transponder works, this was due to a lot of websites talking about transponders being a key feature of knowing where an aircraft is. The websites that I used for this comprised of a factsheet produced by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL)[4].This was extremely useful and offered a whole range of information, from what a transponder is, how they work, and what happens if a transponder fails.
The next stage of my research focused on Radar, and how that is used to track a plane. For this I used a journal written by Daphne s. LaDue, Pamela L. Heinselman, and Jennifer F. Newman. The purpose of this journal was to advise on the use of radar in predicting weather, and was written for, ‘TWO STAKEHOLDER GROUPS IN THE SOUTHERN PLAINS’. Therefore, the information was not the most relevant, but a small selection was easily transferable to the use of tracking commercial aircraft. This source also highlighted the fact that both primary and secondary radar systems are used. This enabled me to further my research, which was very helpful.
I understood from the article on the BBC News website that aircraft also use ACARS and GPS. Therefore, I decided to write a couple of small paragraphs about these two types of equipment. “Why don’t all commercial aircraft transmit GPS data in real time?[5]” This was the title of an aviation based forum that I found to contain relevant information on GPS. Because of the validity of this source I decided to verify this information, and found that the majority was accurate, probably because the forum is made up of mostly pilots and aviation enthusiasts. My knowledge of ACARS came from The Aviationist[6]. The Aviationist has become one of world’s most authoritative and read military aviation website’s. It is run by David Cenciotti a private pilot, a former 2nd Lt. of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) and a graduate in Computer Engineering. Therefore, I decided that this websites information was very reliable and it was very related to my project.
Now came the stage where I would look at tragic occurrences of missing commercial aircraft, AirAisa flight 8501, and Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which both occurred in 2014. I chose both of these case studies as they are both very recent, and have many of the same factors involved, i.e. both went missing over water. Also they provided a solved case, in terms of QZ8501, and an example of a missing plane, that is still missing and unknown about, in terms of what happened, MH370.
To supply a timeline of events for both missing planes I used news websites. I chose to do this as the information was very well presented, and these websites have been updated regularly as new information is uncovered. Therefore, these sites gave the best data. BBC[7] and CBC[8] were used as both of these sites achieve worldwide coverage, have world class journalists, and aim to be unbiased. However, both of these websites only offer simplified timelines with basic information.
For more information regarding MH370, I used the book: “Searching form MH370”[9]. This book looked at all available evidence, then conspiracy theories, and then talked about what evidence there is to support each of the theories. The information that I extracted from this book included the fact that Boeing had warned of cracking in the aircraft skins. I then used this evidence to argue my theory for the disappearance of MH370. The book was hugely useful to help argue my theory and make arguments to back-up or disprove my own opinion on how MH370 went missing.
When researching how we can prevent events like Malaysia Airlines flight 370 and AirAsia flight 8501 happening in the future I used a website recommended to me by an aerospace engineer, VOA NEWS; ‘Four Strategies to Prevent Another Missing Malaysia Plane Case[10]’. This site gave extremely useful information on how to remove the possibility of another disappearance happening, through the use of higher security on board the planes, (having a second cockpit door); Implementing remote flying technology (so that the plane can be controlled by the ground in-case a mid-air emergency removing the ability of the pilots to fly the plane); redesigning communication devices (aviation analysts say the manual shutdowns of the Malaysian plane’s automated communication systems shortly after takeoff show that the aviation industry also needs to redesign transponder and beacon devices); and a wider use of e-passports (“The experience of the past few decades shows that bad guys can find a way around technical solutions if they are on a plane, so the most cost-effective use of resources is to keep them off of jets,” Aerospace consultant Aboulafia said).
On reflection, I decided not to use this information in my discussion, as I felt that it started to digress from the main focus of my discussion. However, I do feel that this information is very interesting and important, and that it would definitely ‘add’ something to a wider discussion.
Another source of information that I used was that of engineering contacts, which I emailed my draft to. They then corrected small errors, and added important information (notes are in the appendix). They also recommended some useful sites, and guided me with the structure of my discussion. Therefore, I believe that this was the most useful resource in helping with the process of writing this extended project.
Discussion/Development/Analysis
Modern commercial airplanes have various safety features to enable them to keep in contact with the ground and Air Traffic controllers at airports. The main pieces of equipment are transponders, radar, ACARS and GPS.
The transponder is fitted to all aircraft, and automatically transmits a unique four-digit code when it receives a radio signal sent by radar. These pulses can then be used to calculate the airplanes speed and direction, as well as the identity of the airplane.[11] Transponders also send information to TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system) on other aircraft[12]. Transponders work by a ground ‘interrogator’ transmitting an ‘interrogation’ sequence on 1030MHz Upon receipt, the transponder on-board the aircraft immediately responds on 1090MHz. Once the return signal is received by the ground station, the data is processed and relayed on to the controller’s display or used by tools and automatic safety nets. The transponder is usually located in the centre console of a commercial airplane, and can be switched off by the pilots, or anyone, during a flight. This is because a transponder left on, when on the ground, can clutter radar; and also in the case of a fire or malfunction the transponder will need to be turned off or reset.[13]
All commercial aircraft are fitted with two transponders, a primary and backup. When one is turned off the other can be turned on manually, to help locate the aircraft in an emergency.
As mentioned in EuroControl, ‘In recent months there have been two known examples of aircraft returning to major European hubs due to complete transponder failure.’ So while not an everyday occurrence, it’s not unheard of and therefore could be a possibility in how commercial airplanes can go missing. However transponder failure is usually noticed by ATC, and so the aircraft is able to safety return back to the airport. Transponders are also built into the airplane’s black box, and should continue working after crashes, even underwater, though black box retrieval is hard and a race against the clock. They have a battery life of 30 days.[14]
Radar is used to track aircraft when they are in range. Air traffic control uses radar to track planes both on the ground and in the air, and also to guide planes in for smooth landings. ‘In its simplest form it consists of a transmitted radio signal aimed by an antenna in a particular direction, and a receiver that detects the echoes off any objects in the path of the signal’[15] Dr Graham Brooker, a radar engineer at the University of Sydney’s School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, explains that for air traffic control radars, the beam is shaped like a fan, narrow in the horizontal direction, and wide in the vertical direction, to accommodate high-flying planes. This beam scans around in a circle once every two or three seconds and echoes are displayed on a circular display called a plan-position indicator. The air traffic controller, or a computer, can track the echoes or ‘blips’ on the display to determine where the aircraft is heading. This is called primary radar. However primary radar is seldom used any more in isolation as there are too many planes in the sky.
“These days, secondary radar is also used, in which a coded pulse sequence is sent to the aircraft and a transponder on the plane generates a coded return, containing a lot of information about the aircraft. This used to be called identification friend or foe, or IFF.” Air traffic controllers mostly use secondary radar to track commercial aircraft and only use primary radar in the case where transponders are not fitted, are turned off or are broken.
There was a case a couple of decades back where a young man flew a light plane half way across the US without being detected as the air traffic controllers either had their primary radars turned off or thought his echo was from a flock of birds. If the aircraft transponder is switched off, it can be difficult to identify which one of the many primary radar “blips” on the air traffic control display corresponds to the aircraft you are interested in. However, radar does have it’s limitations, such as the phenomenon of ‘flying below the radar’, which is possible because of the interaction of the ground and the electromagnetic waves, causing them to ‘lift’ of the horizon. There are also limits to the distance over which radar can be used. The main problem with radar for long distance operation is the fact that the amount of power required to send and receive the signal is dependent on the distance to the aircraft raised to the power of four.[16]
ACARS is the acronym for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. It’s an automated communication system used by commercial planes to transmit and receive messages from ground facilities (airline, maintenance department, aircraft or system manufacturer, etc). Along with the general information about the flight (callsign, speed, altitude, position, etc), these messages may contain what we can consider system health checks.[17] ACARS is a service, which airlines have to pay for, therefore not every commercial airplane has all or any of it. This means that depending on the airline, and iIf ACARS is fitted a commercial aircraft can be tracked by using just it’s ACARS information. ACARS, along with the majority of other systems on an aircraft can be turned off in the cockpit as explained by Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of Cockpit Confidential, “In the interest of safety — namely, fire and electrical system protection — it’s important to have the ability to isolate a piece of equipment, either by a standard switch or, if need be, through a circuit breaker,”[18]
GPS, or global positioning service, is a way of tracking any enabled device, through the use of satellites to a specific location. For GPS to work, the plane would need to be equipped with a suitable GPS device, this can then transmit the location of the aircraft in real time to a server on the ground, via a network of satellites. However commercial airplanes are usually not equipped with a GPS system. This is because GPS uses two completely different technologies, GPS, which lets the device calculate its own location and then the device uses WiFi or GSM or another similar network to transmit that information elsewhere. So you’ve got a problem with planes over the ocean, putting in a GPS so the plane and pilots know exactly where they are is self-explanatory, transmitting that information continuously to a ground server is not, primarily because it is technically difficult. Also under the current secondary-radar system used to track most large commercial aircraft, the GPS information is not relayed to air traffic controllers. For this reason many commercial airplanes use a ‘closed’ GPS system, which allows the pilots to see their current location, but it doesn’t transmit any data back to the ground.[19]
A final communication method is ADS-B, or automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast. ADS-B relies on radio waves being emitted by another type of transponder, which is usually attached to the bottom of the plane and also controlled from the cockpit. The ADS-B transponder sends out radio waves containing all kinds of information about the airplane, including GPS data about the plane’s location relayed by navigational satellites, but also the flight number, speed and vertical velocity, which indicates whether the plane is climbing or descending. “Anybody can pick up these radio waves using a cheap receiver similar to that used in car radios, with ADS-B, you get much more data at lower cost [than secondary radar].” , says Robertson. owner of FlightRadar24.[20]
Although the technology is about eight years old and most major plane manufacturers already outfit their planes with ADS-B transponders, it is not yet a recognised communication in global air traffic control because it takes years for the aviation industry to be convinced of the safety of a new technique. The FAA is expected to adopt the system by about 2020.Coverage is limited to about 30,000 feet and the altitude at which ADS-B can detect planes varies by geography and the location of receivers. In some parts of Europe it can be as low as 500 feet.
So how can a plane go missing?
Many commercial airplanes have many back-up systems and redundancies built in, just in-case one of the on-board systems stops working.
However in the last year two commercial airplanes have gone missing, AirAsia flight 8501, and Malaysia Airlines flight 370. I will look at what is known about these disappearances and analyse conspiracy theories relating to the information on aircraft communications equipment above.
AirAsia flight 8501(QZ8501), was declared missing with air traffic control at 06:24 local time on the 27th December 2014, over the Java Sea. The plane, an Airbus A320–200, disappeared midway into the flight of more than two hours from the city of Surabaya. No distress call was made, and bad weather was reported in the area.[21] The plane was then found as searchers located a wreckage on the sea floor beginning on 3 January, and the ‘black box’ was recovered by 13 January. The search for bodies ended in March 2015 after recovery of 113 of the 162 bodies.[22]
[23]Following the recovery of the ‘black box’ and other evidence, the mystery of the
disappearance of AirAsia flight 8501 has been analysed by industry experts and now a clear picture of what happened has evolved. The main finding is that the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics reported that bad weather was believed to be the major factor to triggering the incident, specifically the weather phenomenon ‘atmospheric icing’, “which can cause engine damage due to a cooling process”.[24] It was also found that before take-off, the pilot, Captain Iriyanto an experienced former air force pilot, of Flight 8501 had asked for permission to fly at a higher altitude to avoid the storm, but the request was not approved due to other planes above him on the popular route, according to AirNav, Indonesia’s air traffic control. In his last communication the pilot said he wanted to change course to avoid the menacing storm system. Then all contact was lost, about 40 minutes after the plane had taken off. The fact that all contact was lost with AirAsia flight 8501, means that all of the communications equipment on the plane failed, or the plane was unable to be detected by ground stations.
The fact that radar was the last of the communications to be lost, could point to the transponder being faulty or turned off. This, as discussed above, is not a difficult and often recurrent issue. The fact that there was also no distress call made by either of the pilots, or crew, would suggest that either the pilot deliberately crashed the plane, or didn’t want anyone on the ground to know what was happening. Alternatively, the bad weather and the fact that the seasoned pilot had tried to get permission to fly around it, would suggest that there could have been a possibility of catastrophic and simultaneous failure of all the aircrafts electronic systems. However, because of the number of redundant systems and stringent testing that each component has to go through to be passed safe to use, makes me believe that the possibility of this happening is very, very small.
An alternative view is that, because the plane was around approximately 400km off of the coast of Borneo, and further from Indonesia, the aircraft was entirely out of the range of the nearest ground station. This could be a possibility as in Asia coverage is much less than in a more economically developed region such as Europe (I couldn’t find any data on where the nearest ground receiver was, but many articles compared the level of coverage in Asia with that in Europe).
The official reason for the disappearance of AirAsia flight 8501is that bad weather was believed to the major factor to triggering the incident. However, I would question why weren’t any other aircraft affected by this bad weather, and why was permission for the requested diversion not allowed by Air Traffic Controllers. Black box evidence also shows that after requesting a slight diversion the plane sharply climbed nearly 6,000 feet in around 1 minute[25]. This makes me think that the disappearance could indicate pilot error.
Another theory that could explain the disappearance, is that all the systems were broken by a large collision, for example caused by the plane crashing into the sea. This would explain why the airplane was lost over and later found in the Java Sea. However it would not explain how the radar was still picking up a signal for the aircraft, as no radar would be recorded when the aircraft was flying at a low altitude (for example, just before a crash), because of the phenomenon of ‘Flying beneath the radar’, and the fact that once the plane had crashed the radar would not be able to find the plane once it had been submerged in the Java Sea. This makes me believe, even more, that the pilot, or another member of the crew, was responsible for turning off the transponder.
Another case study is that of Malaysian Airlines 370, which also went ‘missing’ in 2014.
[26]The aircraft, which had 239 people onboard, was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 when air traffic control lost contact with it.Despite an extensive search of the southern Indian Ocean, no trace of the aircraft had been found until the discovery of the barnacle-encrusted flaperon on Reunion, more than 3,700km (2,300 miles) away from the main search site.
Below is a timeline of event leading to the disappearance of MH370:
At 01:07 local time, the plane sent its last ACARS transmission, it was silenced and the expected 01:37 transmission was not sent.
01:19: The last communication between the plane and Malaysian air traffic control, spoken either by the pilot or co-pilot, “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”.
A few minutes later, the plane’s transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was shut down as the aircraft crossed from Malaysian air traffic control into Vietnamese airspace over the South China Sea.
01:21: The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said the plane failed to check in as scheduled with air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City.
02:15: Malaysian military radar plotted Flight MH370 at a point south of Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca, west of its last known location. Thai military radar logs also confirmed that the plane turned west and then north over the Andaman sea.
In maps accompanying its 1 May report, the Malaysian government revised the time to be 02:22 and put the position further west.
02:28: After the loss of radar, a satellite above the Indian Ocean picked up data from the plane in the form of seven automatic “pings” between the aircraft and a ground station. The first was at 02:28 local time.[27]
Malaysia Airlines says the plane lost contact less than an hour after takeoff, and that no distress signal or message was sent.
What makes Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 more mysterious is that it has still not been found, and why it disappeared is still unknown. However recent discoveries of debris on the island of Reunion may soon help to reveal more evidence as to why the aircraft disappeared
My theory as to why and how MH370 went missing is that it was either a catastrophic mid-air break-up, drop in cabin pressure or pilot/crew suicide.
Firstly, why a catastrophic mid-air break-up or a drop in cabin pressure? When researching I found a website that detailed a U.S. aviation watchdog warning airlines of a problem with cracks in Boeing 777s that could lead to a mid-air break up or a catastrophic drop in cabin pressure. This warning was issued 6 months before MH370 went missing. If a crack was on the aircraft and had gone un-noticed it would be possible for a rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the aircraft to take place in flight. Although this sounds somewhat like the plot of a Hollywood movie, it is a very possible threat. It would not take much for a crack in the fuselage to break open on the plane, and cause such an event. The only problem with this theory is why did it take 6 months for the crack to finally cause the problem, and why in those 6 months was the crack not found and dealt with? Also why didn’t any other aircraft crash due to this problem?
This theory may be disproved by the fact that Boeing said that the FAA alert did not apply to the missing jet because it did not have the same antenna as the rest of the Boeing 777s.[28] However why would a different antenna effect the nature of the cracks on the aircraft’s skin? One airline apparently, reported a 16-inch crack in the fuselage skin of a 14-year-old plane[29]. Also, the reason by Boeing points to this specific 777 as having a unique antenna, which when researching I could not find any difference in the specifications of this airplane, flown by Malaysia Airlines, to that of any others ordered around the same time.
The other theory, pilot or crew suicide, has a larger probability and has seen a lot of coverage from many media outlets. It would start with the pilot/crew turning off the transponder and ACARS[30]. They would then either crash, or fly the plane somewhere else and crash, most likely they would try and disable the passengers on the way to eliminate the possibility of a phone call and/or other information being sent. Because of the change in direction, and then the ‘pings’ recorded over the Indian ocean later, that the second version of events is the more likely.
This has also been the general consensus with many aviation experts, for example J.Green says in his book Searching for MH370, “The Pilot probably turned of the oxygen supply and continued flying.”
This also concurs with research by a veteran air traffic investigator, who says, “The most likely scenario is that pilot Zaharie Ahmed Shah deliberately depressurised the cabin, thereby depriving those on board of air.” He then goes on to say, “Although oxygen masks would have dropped down automatically from above the seats, their supply was limited to just 20 minutes.”
Official Investigators also found that the diary of the pilot, Zaharie Ahmed Shah, had no future plans, which put him at the forefront of the investigation as the prime suspect.[31]
Another theory that I have come across whilst researching, concerns the left turn made, which was a deviation from the filed flight path. Was this caused by the pilot, but because of an onboard emergency? Was he trying to land at the nearby Palau Langkawi airport.
This theory stems from the deviation on the flight path, that many senior pilots have noticed. This could of been triggered by an onboard emergency. The pilot would have known before-hand of any nearby runways that were available incase any problems occurred during the flight. This could explain the loss of transponders and communications equipment, due to an on-board emergency such as a fire disabling the equipment. Eventually the crew would have been overcome by smoke and the plane would just have continued on flying, probably on autopilot, until either fuel exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed.
Also, if the plane could not make it to the emergency airport because of the on-board problem and it may have been deliberately ditched in the ocean. If this was the case would there not have been a communication from the cockpit, or from a passenger? This is assuming the on-board emergency had not disabled the communication equipment.
Both MH370 and QZ8501 went missing over water, which illustrates the drawbacks of using current tracking equipment such as radar and transponders. This is primarily due to range constraints, and that such vital equipment can be turned off easily from the cockpit. Whilst I understand the reason for this, I feel that there should be a system that can sense when the plane is on the ground and can automatically switch the transponder and other equipment that does not have a use off. Also in the future with the addition of ADS-B transponders, and other systems that are currently in the prototype stage, disappearances should hopefully be a thing of the past.
Conclusion
In conclusion to my original question: ‘How does a commercial airplane disappear in the 21st century?’ I believe that there are a variety of potential causes to the disappearance of a commercial airplane; communication equipment being able to be turned off from inside the cockpit, pilot motive, and equipment failure.
Equipment being able to be turned off from inside the cockpit is probably the major factor in how commercial airplanes disappear, as it is this that makes them invisible from on the ground. Without a transponder, the only information that the ground have is the position of the airplane, without knowing which plane they are seeing on primary radar systems. The limitations of other systems not being able to transmit their data and radar only having a limited range does not help in aircraft location Therefore, it is not as difficult as I initially presumed to make a commercial airplane disappear, especially if you are flying over the sea/ocean, as this is where it is the easiest to be out of the range of radar.
Pilot motive is a smaller factor, as it could be the trigger to transponders being turned off. I believe that this has a smaller effect as there are two pilots in the cockpit, and unless one of them is locked out, (as in the recent case of flight 9525, a GermanWings flight that crashed in Southern France) then surely the other one would try and get out a distress signal, or immobilise the other pilot.
Finally, equipment failure. One of the theories that was talked about was the cracking on the skin of the Boeing 777, the plane that was flight MH370 and how this could have caused a catastrophic mid-air break up of the fuselage. With technology such as ultrasound, and the rigorous tests carried out by the airline maintenance teams, how could this be a factor, apart from human failure, in the events of either of the planes disappearing.
Because it is easy for a commercial airplane to disappear in the 21st century, I have also realised how vulnerable you are as an airline passenger to the actions of the pilots. This was escalated by recent events of a GermanWings pilot downing a commercial jet in the south of France, during the time that I have been writing this dissertation.
I also am curious as to why new technology, such as ADS-B, is not being implemented in commercial airplanes to remove the chance of tragic events, such as MH370 and QZ8501, happening.
I feel that there has not been enough recent innovation in this sector, such as radar which is an old technology developed for use in World War 2. It has not really evolved much since then, and has many limitations as I have discovered in my research.
Written 14/12/2015
[1] Hunt For Malaysian Plane (2014) Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26626715 (Accessed: 18.06.15)
[2] Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 (2014) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 (Accessed: 18.06.15)
[3] The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370, 2015. FACTUAL INFORMATION SAFETY INVESTIGATION FOR MH370. Available at: http://mh370.mot.gov.my/download/FactualInformation.pdf (Accessed: 18.06.15)
[4] Transponders in Aviation ( 2014) Available at: https://www.eurocontrol.int/sites/default/files/publication/files/NetAlert-19.pdf (Accessed 31.08.15)
[5] Why don’t all commercial aircraft transmit GPS data in real time? (2014) Available at: http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2198/why-dont-all-commercial-aircraft-transmit-gps-data-in-real-time (Accessed 1.08.15)
[6] What SATCOM, ACARS and Pings tell us about the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 (2014) Available at: http://theaviationist.com/2014/03/16/satcom-acars-explained/ ( Accessed 28.07.15)
[7] Sudden disappearance mysterious, given tracking technology for aircraft (2014) Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/1.2568713 (Accessed 4.08.15)
[8] AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 to Singapore missing (2014) Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30614627 (Accessed 2.08.15)
[9] Green, J.2015. Searching For MH370. BooksMango
[10] Four Strategies to Prevent Another Missing Malaysia Plane Case (2014) Available at: http://www.voanews.com/content/four-strategies-to-prevent-another-missing-malaysia-plane-case/1878415.html (Accessed 1.09.15)
[11] How do you track a plane? (2014) Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-26544554 (Accessed 31.08.15)
[12] Transponders in Aviation ( 2014) Available at: https://www.eurocontrol.int/sites/default/files/publication/files/NetAlert-19.pdf (Accessed 31.08.15)
[13] Why can plane transponders be turned off from the cockpit? (2014) Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-mystery-raises-new-transponder-questions/ (Accessed 31.08.15)
[14]How can a plane vanish? (2014) Available at: http://www.channel4.com/news/malaysia-airlines-mh370-black-box-how-can-plane-vanish (Accessed 15.10.15)
[15]How does radar work? (2014) Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/03/17/3964782.htm (Accessed 27.07.15)
[16] Daphne s. LaDue, Pamela L. Heinselman, and Jennifer F. Newman (2010) STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT RADAR SYSTEMS Available at: http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2009BAMS2830.1 (Accessed 27.07.15)
[17] What SATCOM, ACARS and Pings tell us about the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 (2014) Available at: http://theaviationist.com/2014/03/16/satcom-acars-explained/ ( Accessed 28.07.15)
[18] Transponders, Conspiracy Theories, Rogue Pilots and Media Madness: A Continuing Series on the Disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines 777 (2014) Available at: http://www.askthepilot.com/malaysia-airlines-flight-370/ (Accessed 28.07.15)
[19] Why don’t all commercial aircraft transmit GPS data in real time? (2014) Available at: http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2198/why-dont-all-commercial-aircraft-transmit-gps-data-in-real-time (Accessed 1.08.15)
[20] Sudden disappearance mysterious, given tracking technology for aircraft (2014) Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/1.2568713 (Accessed 4.08.15)
[21] AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 to Singapore missing (2014) Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30614627 (Accessed 2.08.15)
[22] Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 (2014) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia_AirAsia_Flight_8501 (Accessed 4.08.15)
[23] Image taken from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/blob/1554154/1440220470000/qz8501-infographic-data.jpg (Accessed 15.08.15)
[24] AirAsia flight QZ8501: icing of engines likely cause of crash, says agency (2015) Available at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/04/airasia-flight-qz8501-icing-of-engines-was-likely-cause-of-crash-says-agency (Accessed 4.08.15)
[25] Indonesian minister’s puzzle (2014) Available at:http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/26/asia/indonesia-airasia-transportation-minister/ (Accessed 5.08.15)
[26] Image taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26503141 (Accessed 15.08.15)
[27]Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know (2015) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26503141 (Accessed 15.08.15)
[28]U.S. warned of Boeing 777 “cracking” problem before Malaysian jetliner went missing (2014) Available at: http://english.cntv.cn/20140313/102340.shtml (Accessed 18.08.15)
[29] Green, J.2015. Searching For MH370. BooksMango
[30] Malaysian plane sent out engine data before vanishing (2004) Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25201-malaysian-plane-sent-out-engine-data-before-vanishing/ (Accessed 23.08.15)
[31] Flight MH370: Missing jet pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah is prime suspect because he cleared his diary (2014) Available at: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/flight-mh370-official-police-investigation-3741513 (Accessed 23.08.15)
