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          Global Airline Industry Begins Study to Prevent MH370 Repeat

   by Michael Lipin

   Global airlines are studying how to prevent a repeat of last month's
   disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane, one of more than 80
   aircraft to vanish in flight since the mid-20th century.

   The [1]International Air Transport Association, which represents 240
   airlines, said last week it is creating a panel to examine how to
   improve real-time aircraft tracking. IATA plans to make recommendations
   by the end of this year.

   In an interview with VOA, Washington-based IATA spokesman Perry Flint
   said the trade group is consulting experts from airlines, aircraft
   manufacturers and systems makers, search and rescue organizations, and
   the United Nations' [2]International Civil Aviation Organization.

   "This sort of task force may be unique," Flint said. "But, the air
   transport industry also has organized international meetings in the
   past to address specific challenges."

   How the study will unfold

   Flint said the new panel will focus on real-time tracking of aircraft,
   rather than streaming of flight performance data for aircraft systems.
   He said any proposed improvements would not be likely to involve
   installing entirely new systems on planes.

   Flint also said there is no guarantee about what will happen to IATA's
   recommendations. As an industry group, it can appeal for action but
   cannot mandate any steps by national or international authorities.

   "Our main goal is to never be in a situation where we don't know where
   an airplane is," Flint said. "There are about 100,000 flights a day,
   and almost every day, every one of them ends on a runway somewhere. In
   situations where a flight does not end on a runway, we want to know
   where it is."

   Such situations have arisen before.

   History of aircraft disappearances

   A Netherlands-based aviation [3]accident database has recorded 88 cases
   of missing planes since World War Two.

   The Aviation Safety Network said 62 of them involve aircraft vanishing
   over water, as happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on March 8.

   Lead database manager Harro Ranter said most disappearances at sea
   appear to have involved aircraft running out of fuel or suffering
   engine problems.

   He said most of the other planes went missing over mountainous terrain,
   leading authorities to assume they were flying too low or caught in
   poor weather.

   Ranter, who also serves as an adviser to the Dutch government, said the
   disappearance of MH370 stands out from the other cases in several ways.

   What makes MH370 unique?

   He said first and foremost, the case involves the highest number of
   people ever to be lost on a missing aircraft. The Malaysia Airlines
   plane was carrying 239 passengers and crew on a flight from Kuala
   Lumpur to Beijing.

   The [4]previous record for people lost on a missing plane was set on
   March 16, 1962, when a U.S. military charter flight carrying 107
   people, mostly soldiers, vanished over the Pacific Ocean on a flight
   from Guam to the Philippines.

   Ranter also said most the 88 missing plane cases happened in the 1960s
   and 1970s.

   "In those days, navigation equipment and satellite coverage were
   nonexistent or not as advanced as they are today," he said. "The Boeing
   777 involved in MH370 had a very high safety standard, was considered
   very reliable, and was operated by an airline also considered very safe
   and reliable."

   Ranter said almost all of the disappearances in more recent decades
   involve cargo aircraft and relatively small private planes, rather than
   commercial passenger flights.
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   [5]http://www.voanews.com/content/global-airline-industry-begins-study-
   to-prevent-mh370-repeat/1891075.html

References

   1. http://www.iata.org/
   2. http://www.icao.int/
   3. http://aviation-safety.net/database
   4. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19620316-1
   5. http://www.voanews.com/content/global-airline-industry-begins-study-to-prevent-mh370-repeat/1891075.html