Live Flight Tracking
 

Missing Planes: UK's Inmarsat Says Live Flight Tracking Ready "In Weeks"
by Staff Writers
London, UK Feb 11, 2015

London-based communications company Inmarsat says live flight-tracking - that could have established the whereabouts of flight MH370 which disappeared in the Indian Ocean - could be ready within weeks.

Inmarsat is proposing a free global airline tracking service as part of the proposed adoption of further aviation safety service measures by the world's airlines following the loss of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. It is offering a live data tracking device that would be triggered in the event of a deviation from flight-path.

Missing Planes: UK's Inmarsat Says Live Flight Tracking Ready In Weeks

Only if it was impossible disable it from onboard.

From item cited:

"However, calls have been made for full flight tracking of aircraft in the future, so that aircraft data can be transmitted in live-time, rather than being done via a transponder (that can be switched off) and flight data and cockpit voice recorders (that can only be recovered after wreckage)."

That's an aspiration, and doesn't necessarily bear any relation to Inmarsat's proposed solution, which appears to be an extension of ADS-C.

If a system is to be developed that can't be disabled, that will be down to the aircraft and avionics manufacturers, not the satcom provider.