Mixture, with all due respect it won't matter very much what you or I think. So there is little point you banging on and on that tracking is unnecessary.
The real issues in this debate will be:
1. what the average member of the public wants (yep the public, without whom there would be no industry)
2. whether airlines see a commercial advantage in this capability
3. what 3rd parties (including underwriters) require
In a world where tracking technology is becoming more commonplace and after three recent high profile cases where planes have been difficult to find (AF447, MH370, and now Air Asia), it seems almost quaint (and increasingly unacceptable) to many that large RPT aircraft are not tracked.
mickjoebill
In the eyes of the travelling public the aviation industry is making an ass of itself.
If I recall correctly, it was almost 2 hours after AF447 crashed when Senegal ATC started thinking there was anything amiss. So by the time ATC first became concerned, the aircraft had crashed 2 hours earlier and and 1800km "before" its then presumed location! It was longer still until it was appreciated that AF447 must have crashed "somewhere" (at the 2 hour mark Senegal ATC started asking other AF flights to try and raise 447). This in the 21st century? You have to be kidding me.
I completely accept that tracking would not have saved any lives on AF447 (nor I suspect AirAsia). That is not the point.
Then there is MH370. The cost of the search thus far is massive. The human cost to the relatives of not knowing what happened is incalculable. Against this, so what if it is a 1 in a million event. And that is before you consider the possibility that real time tracking (if unable to be turned off) may have prevented MH370 in the first place.
Inmarsat (and possibly others) are now offering this capability to airlines. For free!. Basic aircraft ID, location, track, and speed take almost zero bandwidth. That is why Inmarsat does not need to charge.
We don't need to stream CVR and FDR - although even that may come in time! We can rely on the onboard recorders. But we do need to be able to reliably find them - hopefully in a timely fashion.
If some people feel this is pointless and unnecessary, that's OK. However there is no real downside. It is not harmful in any way. And it is not dangerous. So there does not appear to be any real reason to object. If I am missing something, please explain what this is.
I have spent many hours staring out at sea looking for missing planes or boats or survivors and so I congratulate the SAR teams for their efforts to date, and also acknowledge their grim task ahead. But that is hardly the point either.