Originally Posted by
727forever
Quote: Back onto the hamster wheel again
Aircraft already have sufficient tracking. ADS-B and ADS-C and ELTs
With all due respect Ian, MH370 is still missing so I would not call that sufficient tracking. Tracking devices that can be turned off by crew or other persons and render the aircraft invisible except to ground radar is out of date thinking.
MH370
had sufficient tracking systems - some were turned off by the management trying to save pennies, others were 'turned off' by action of someone with access to the cockpit.
What you are talking about is a tracking device that cannot be turned off by someone in the cockpit. There was a continual argument on the gargantuan MH370 thread about having avionics devices on board that cannot be turned off by the crew if they malfunction. The general thought was that this was not a good idea. If you have someone in the crew that can disable all the power buses you are left with a battery powered device that cannot be switched off. I would point you to the fire in the Ethiopian 787 at LHR which resulted in considerable damage caused by a mis-assembled ELT, which is just such a device.
However, note that the existing roof mounted ELTs transmitting to satellite on 406KHz is something that would easily provide tracking and already exists.
There is no need for new equipment, there may be a need for automatically switching the
existing tracking systems to an emergency mode. However, you cannot cater for a crew member deliberately disabling the devices (most aircraft fixed ELTs can be switched from the cockpit).