The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed all domestic airlines and non-scheduled operators (NSOPs) to track aircraft carrying passengers and cargo in real time.

With this move, India could become the first country globally to ask its carriers to track aircraft from departure to arrival. The DGCA’s move comes in the wake of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. There is still no trace of the aircraft, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and went missing with 239 passengers and crew on March 8.

The DGCA has asked all air transport operators to use the onboard Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) /Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) for this purpose and ensure they are operational before every departure. Indian operators and non-scheduled operators have been asked to keep the monitoring systems on during domestic and international flights.

The move is unlikely to increase the costs of Indian operators, as the larger carriers, such as Jet Airways and Air India, already have the system on their Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 fleets, respectively.

The DGCA order states that while flying over areas where there is no ACARS/ADS-B coverage, the flight crew should report the aircraft’s coordinates, speed and altitude at an interval not exceeding 15 minutes.

DGCA officials said implementing this procedure would greatly reduce the search area in case there was a problem.

The search for MH-370 has been spread over 84,000 sq miles, largely because there is no clarity on where the aircraft went missing.

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