The more this story unfolds, the more I realize just how wrong I was about how I thought things like FlightAware and everything involved in tracking an airplane works.
What exactly is the barrier between just having two way satellite communications on every plane for the purposes of tracking and reporting its location?
Cost mostly if I got it right? The value in knowing the position doesn't justify equipping all airplanes with some kind of satellite position update system (the two-way part that is), and there is almost no value in that information outside freak incidents like this.
What satellites are you using that have world wide coverage and enough bandwidth for this purpose?
Such a system also wouldn't be immune to being disabled as the current tracking systems are. People need to learn to live with uncertainty instead of trying to remove it.
So I worked at Trimble Nav in the radio group, so this by no means perfect || expert on the first go:
Rough specs of something that might be respectable:
- wind & solar powered
- externally-mounted, self-contained, near zero maintenance
- compatible with deicing chemicals & equipment
- multiple redundant location sources: GPS, GLONASS, LORAN, cell-tower
- jam-resistant multi antennnae / recvr config
- highly compressed satellite telemetry with cellular, pager and HF backups
- location & alt delta every 3 minutes (12 bits +- 100m)
- absolute location & alt every 8 hours (46 bits +- 100m)
- physically hardened against several hours blunt-force phsyical damage
- (eg enough to slow down a die-grinder w/ a diamond cutoff wheel)
- pretty app similar to google earth where carrier operators can see their fleet live or in the past
Unit cost of ~$100k USD at first, getting to $35k at scale
Shoe-string budget dev costs: $1.2 mil for a bump to fit the most popular model of jet first, then expand to others and airbus if successful.
Assumes engrs that can bust it out quickly and hustlers that can finagle enterprise & get distribution (Eg make it an FAA mandatory device for classes of airframes).
They also omit the fact that the 4 digit code in the transponder is entered by the pilot. When I've flown with friends typically the transponder is set to 1200 until ATC tells them what number they want them to emit, and then the pilot sets that number and from then on they know who they are.
It is worth mentioning that transport aircraft carry Mode S [0] transponders which emit a unique ICAO 24 bit address assigned by aircraft registration. This data is available regardless the pilot-entered 4 octal digit Mode A transponder code. The transponder can still be turned off, however.
This contrasts to small aircraft which typically have Mode A/C only (no mode S).
What is the first thing you do when you land? I don't know about you, but I check my phone. If even one phone on that plane was not off or in airplane mode it would immediately connect with the nearest cell tower no matter where they landed, if there was a cell tower in range that is. I know for a fact that I've simply forgotten to turn my phone off... on occasion... and sure enough, my phone starts ringing as soon as I land.
Now, who here would say that the NSA isn't backdoored into every cell tower on that planet. I wouldn't be surprised if they are. How could we not know as soon as one of the cells on that plane popped up on a tower anywhere in the world? So, exclude all cell tower coverage areas in projected flight area and search there to rule out potential hijack/landing.
You're assuming that the passengers are still alive (the plane climbed to 45,000 feet after disabling its transponder), and if they are, that they haven't been intimidated into giving up their phones.
Forgive my ignorance, but why the plane could not fly straight rather than north or south that is put forth as the only options? Straight is as suicidal as going south, still a vast ocean ahead.
[+] [-] JoshGlazebrook|12 years ago|reply
What exactly is the barrier between just having two way satellite communications on every plane for the purposes of tracking and reporting its location?
[+] [-] jib|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Perdition|12 years ago|reply
Such a system also wouldn't be immune to being disabled as the current tracking systems are. People need to learn to live with uncertainty instead of trying to remove it.
[+] [-] vl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] midas007|12 years ago|reply
Rough specs of something that might be respectable:
Unit cost of ~$100k USD at first, getting to $35k at scaleShoe-string budget dev costs: $1.2 mil for a bump to fit the most popular model of jet first, then expand to others and airbus if successful.
Assumes engrs that can bust it out quickly and hustlers that can finagle enterprise & get distribution (Eg make it an FAA mandatory device for classes of airframes).
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davepage|12 years ago|reply
This contrasts to small aircraft which typically have Mode A/C only (no mode S).
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_transponder_interrogat...
[+] [-] siculars|12 years ago|reply
Now, who here would say that the NSA isn't backdoored into every cell tower on that planet. I wouldn't be surprised if they are. How could we not know as soon as one of the cells on that plane popped up on a tower anywhere in the world? So, exclude all cell tower coverage areas in projected flight area and search there to rule out potential hijack/landing.
[+] [-] kevinchen|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] melling|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shn|12 years ago|reply