Experts call for adoption of real-time flight tracking

The global civil aviation industry should speed up the adoption of a real-time tracking system for passenger airliners to improve safety, experts suggested.

"Real-time tracking technology for civil airliners has been well-developed," said Zhao Yifei, a professor specializing in air traffic management at Civil Aviation University of China. "It is very necessary for airliners to have such a system because it can enable rapid location of a plane in case of contingencies."

He added: "Considering the fact that air traffic control authorities usually do not monitor flights that fly across an ocean because they are out of radar range, it is especially essential for long-distance, ocean-spanning flights to be equipped with real-time tracking instruments."