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ITU to work on standards for future Flight Data Recorders
Big data, cloud computing to be used to relay ‘black box’
data in real time,
ITU urged to take up challenge
Dubai, 1 April, 2014 – The
Malaysian Minister for Communications and Multimedia called upon ITU to develop
leading edge standards to facilitate the transmission of flight data in real
time. He was speaking at the opening of the ITU World Telecommunication
Development Conference taking place in Dubai.
This follows the tragic disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 on 8
March while on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A number of
countries have joined the search for the missing aircraft and its 239 passengers
and crew, currently deploying search aircraft and vessels to scour vast tracts
of the southern Indian Ocean.
“I believe that data from aircraft, including from the black box could be
continuously transmitted and stored in data centres on the ground,” said
Ahmad Shabery Cheek,
Malaysian Minister for Communications and Multimedia. “I urge ITU to work with
industry to develop a better way to constantly monitor flight data and what is
happening in the cockpit. With the advancements in ICT today, we should be able
to retrieve and analyse this data without necessarily locating the black box. I
believe that this simple change may have brought a different outcome today. In
this context, I cannot help but note that whilst communications technologies
have evolved drastically in the past five years, the story of the black box
remains unchanged from 30 years ago.”
“I would like to express my heartfelt sympathy and concern for the
uncertainty surrounding the fate of so many people on board MH370,” said ITU
Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré. “We must ensure that aircraft can be
tracked in real time so that such an unprecedented and tragic incident does not
occur again. ITU is committed to work on the standards that will take advantage
of big data and state-of-the-art cloud computing.”
All commercial airlines and corporate aircraft are required to install and
use ‘black boxes’ to track a number of flight parameters. The flight data
recorder (FDR) is designed to record the operating data from an aircraft’s
systems, including pressure altitude, airspeed, vertical acceleration, magnetic
heading and position of control systems. Cockpit Voice Recorders, or CVRs,
record what the crew say and monitor any sounds that occur within the cockpit.
These monitoring equipment provide investigators with vital clues about the
cause of an accident.
“ITU will invite avionics and aircraft manufacturers along with satellite
operators and airlines to work on new standards to track aircraft in real time,”
said Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Standardization Bureau. “We share the
anxiety expressed by
Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek and will take steps to
urgently address this situation.”
“Inmarsat would
be happy to work with ITU to develop a global solution
to the challenge of tracking commercial aircraft,” said Chris McLaughlin, Senior
Vice President External Affairs of Inmarsat, the British satellite
telecommunications company which helped provide clues to the possible track
flown by the missing Boeing 777-200. “We recognize that this will require
developing expertise in the interest of passengers and operators to further
increase safety in the air.” Inmarsat was awarded ITU’s Humanitarian Award in
2012.
Media-relevant videos can be accessed at the WTDC-14 Newsroom:
http://youtu.be/itrFWXK4Np0;
http://bit.ly/1mojk3Z
Photos are available at:
www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/13554364034/
For more information, please contact:
Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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