ICAO adopts new measures to avoid recurrence of MH370 disappearance

Nearly two years after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council has announced in Montréal that it will be adopting new provisions to avoid the total disappearance of commercial aircraft that are in distress in remote locations.
These new provisions take the form of amendments to Annex 6 to the Chicago Convention (Operation of Aircraft). They will become effective between now and 2021 and primarily relate to:
• The need for commercial aircraft to have autonomous distress tracking devices which have the capacity to transmit location information every minute in circumstances of distress
• Aircraft will be required to have a means of onboard flight data recording that can be easily and promptly recovered
• Cockpit voice recording facilities are to be extended to a 25-hour capability in order to cover all phases of any flight on any type of operation
Where the one-minute distress tracking equipment is concerned, airlines and aircraft manufacturers may choose from any provider as long as it meets required capabilities, while the data recovery system may not necessarily need to involve deployable flight recorders depending on the technology available.
Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, ICAO Council President, commented that: “These developments are consistent with the findings and recommendations of the multidisciplinary Ad-Hoc Working Group ICAO formed after Malaysia Airlines MH370 went missing in May 2014. They directly support the concept of operations for the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) which was proposed by ICAO at that time, and will now greatly contribute to aviation’s ability to ensure that similar disappearances never occur again.”
Aliu also confirmed that: “Taken together, these new provisions will ensure that in the case of an accident the location of the site will be known immediately to within six nautical miles, and that investigators will be able to access the aircraft’s flight recorder data promptly and reliably. They will also contribute to greatly improved and more cost-effective search and rescue operations.”
The search for flight MH370 is due to be wound down in June this year and so far only one identified piece of the plane’s fuselage has been found, on Réunion Island, though another, as yet unidentified, piece of wreckage was found on the island last Thursday.