Malaysian Airline Flight 370, March 2014

The disappearance of Flight 370 has brought to the forefront how glaringly backward airline safety still is. If we only could get the black box from that flight in our hands, we would know all the relevant variables as to how the plane was performing and what the pilots were saying when the plane vanished. Yes, if! That is, if we had a way of first finding the plane. After months of debate about how the NSA can listen, collect and record data of all telephone calls, all email, all messages around the world continuously, about controlling gadgets on the Moon and Mars from Earth, and other miraculous technical capabilities, we are now stunned by the news that an essential component of airline security is still in Dark Ages. Foremost: 1) Why are all commercial airlines NOT equipped with a signal sending mechanism that are unique to that aircraft and independent of any external interference, including the pilots, that continuously identifies the whereabouts of that plane from the time it takes off and until it arrives at its destination, and why are there no tracking stations along the way and/or satellites that receive the signals and alert stations if something is amiss? 2) why is there no transponder on the plane that takes over automatically, independent from the pilots, especially if there is no communication from the pilots? 3) As a corollary, why are pilots able to turn off transponders in the middle of a flight? 4) How is it possible that the FAA, Boeing, someone have not considered the possibility that the “safest” plane supposedly with all sorts of safety redundancies built in could vanish as it did?

Sirman Celayir

Fernandina, Florida