Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26 May 2014
Welcome Remarks
Dato’ Sri Ahmad Shabery Cheek
His Excellency, Minister for Communications and Multimedia
Malaysia
Ms Nancy Graham
Director, Air Navigation Bureau
International Civil Aviation Organisation
Dato’ Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Radzi
Secretary General,
Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia
Dato’ Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi
Chairman
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission
Dato’ Azharuddin Abdul Rahman
Director General
Department of Civil Aviation
Malaysia
Secretaries General and officials of the various Malaysian Ministries and Agencies
Invited speakers, participants and members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning and welcome to this Expert Dialogue on Real-time Monitoring of Flight Data, including the black box.
I bring greetings to you from ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré and my fellow elected officials.
It is now eleven weeks since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 diverted from its planned flight path.
From the point that communication was lost with the aircraft there is still no real certainty as to what happened.
We seem so connected these days that it’s easy to understand the public’s bewilderment that this incident can still be shrouded in such mystery.
As His Excellency, the Malaysian Minister for Communications and Multimedia alluded to at ITU’s World Telecommunication Development Conference in April, it seems implausible that with the advancements in ICT today, and in the age of cloud computing and big data, retrieval and analysis of this crucial information is not possible without having to physically locate and retrieve the black box.
The question is not whether the technological solutions exist to do this, but whether the developers of the technologies, the providers of the services, the airlines and the various international bodies can come together and agree on the international standards, policies and regulations that will be required to ensure the world-wide interoperability and compatibility so that they can be used globally. This unique event has brought together all these components and today and tomorrow we will discuss how we can move this process forward.
We will begin today with a review of the recent tragedy of flight MH370, which was why the Honourable Minister called upon ITU to develop leading edge standards to facilitate the transmission of flight data in real-time, and offered to host this expert dialogue to help quickly move forward this objective.
Our thoughts are therefore with the people on that flight, and their grieving families and friends who still do not know what happened to their loved ones. On their behalf let us commit today to arriving at a clear roadmap that will avoid this kind of prolonged distress in the future.So to reflect on the lives of those 239 people and the suffering of their families, I invite you to stand and observe a minute’s silence.
Thank you.
The world’s governments and the aviation and ICT industries have a responsibility to settle on the international technical standards, policies and regulations that will ensure that, in the future, in the face of such unusual and tragic circumstances, we can find answers quickly.
In organizing this event at the request of the Malaysian government, we have tried to be as diligent as possible in bringing together all the key players. Given the very short notice, we very much appreciate that so many of you have responded, and are with us here today.
In taking the next steps it will be very important to review the work that has gone before.
So this event will be an opportunity to build on the results of ICAO’s “Special Meeting on Global Flight Tracking” held earlier this month in Montréal; to establish clear actions going forward, in particular related to ITU’s expertise in the fields of radio spectrum, satellites and ICT standardization.
ITU is grateful for the excellent collaboration we have with ICAO and to have Nancy Graham here who will update us on the outcome of that meeting and advise how ITU can contribute its expertise to help solve this problem.
ITU has a long history of harmonising the use of the radio spectrum and developing international telecommunication/ICT standards, policies and regulations and is offering to bring this competence to assist aviation, in partnership with ICAO, to consider alternative ways of using technology such as cloud computing and big data, to provide these solutions.
Our task today is to take stock of current and future technology solutions, and the challenges and barriers to the creation of international ICT standards for the transmission of flight data in real-time.
Modern technology solutions could aid in monitoring the location of aircraft and thereby improve the efficiency with which authorities launch rescue efforts in emergency situations.
We recognize, and are sensitive to the fact that aviation is a unique sector and that there are many special issues that need to be addressed including protection and ownership of data; liability; security; cost; and access.
However, these are issues that are also being addressed by the automotive, healthcare and utilities sectors as they too seek to profit from cloud computing, big data analytics and other ICT-based solutions. I believe the work ITU is doing in these other sectors might be brought to assist the aviation sector in its efforts.
ITU’s standards work includes the security and interoperability of cloud computing and big data and can provide valuable input regarding the authenticity, originality and integrity of data.
Indeed, ITU’s membership has already expressed a keen willingness to leverag ts capabilities in these areas to facilitate the transmission of flight data in real time.
It was another great disaster, early in the last century that led to a call for international standards for emergency communications.
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 saw the adoption of the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and amendments to the ITU Radio Regulations to include mandatory operational requirements and provisions on maritime distress and safety communications.
Indeed, it was as a result of that tragedy that ITU standardized the Morse code and the SOS distress signal.
ITU’s role in the field of emergency telecommunications continues today, with ITU often being the first on the ground to assist in recovering communications following a disaster.
ITU standards give preference to emergency calls, a common alerting protocol for exchanging emergency alerts, and best practices for telecommunication network resilience to disasters.
ITU also works closely with ICAO to provide the requirements for radio spectrum and satellite orbits to meet the safety needs for the civil aviation industry.
Indeed, the issue of automatic dependent surveillance (ADS) is being discussed extensively in the ITU groups which deal with efficient spectrum and orbit utilization for the mobile-satellite service, and aeronautical mobile and radio-determination services.
So let us hope that, just as the Titanic led to the use of the new technology of the day – radio telegraphy – to ensure the tragedy was not repeated, so MH370 will instigate a similar major international effort so that today’s technology - such as cloud computing and big data - will be used to ensure that the likes of this event are never repeated, and that this Expert Dialogue today and tomorrow will contribute to that end.
We are fortunate to have with us today so many leading experts from all the sectors that are needed to take forward this dialogue. I am confident that, with your help, we will conclude tomorrow with a meaningful roadmap charting the way forward in terms of coordination and collaboration to seek ICT solutions for the real-time monitoring of flight data, including the black box.
Before concluding let me thank Sulyna Abdullah and her team at MCMC for their excellent collaboration in organizing this event.
I wish you all an interesting and productive event, and I look forward to a positive outcome.
