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A NEW WORLDWIDE system that will allow emergency services to locate a crashed aircraft has been launched in Co Clare.
The world’s first ever global Aircraft Location and Emergency Response Tracking (Alert) service can track an aircraft in difficulty anywhere in the world.
The Aireon Alert service is the first of its kind in the world and will based at the IAA’s North Atlantic communications centre in Ballygirreen in Clare.
It’s believed that had such a system been in place when Malaysian Airlines flight MH-370 disappeared in 2014, the aircraft’s last recorded position would have been known and the Boeing 777 jet could have been found.
At the press conference and launch, Aerion CEO Don Thoma confirmed that the Aireon system was used following the crashes of Lion Air flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 in March of this year. Aireon’s analysis showed that both flights displayed similar flight profile before they crashed.
Until now, only 30% of the Earth’s surface was monitored through conventional ground radar surveillance. With the new system, users now have access to exact location information for aircraft in distress on-demand, which will dramatically benefit global emergency response efforts.
The system, which is now live, is a free service available to commercial aircraft operators/airlines, aviation regulators and search and rescue organisations.
Almost 200 organisations have already signed up for the system.
Irish Aviation Authority CEO Peter Kearney said that they are “proud to be powering Aireon Alert for the entire globe”.
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Some Munster fans are caught up in this and may miss the match later.
@Tony Stack: I was caught in it, was some joke, Queuing up since 5 for the 7:30 flight to shannon, bus went on fire right outside the door, they decided to evacuated people already gone through and rescan them again causing a backlog, told at around 8 the flight was cancelled, no organisation or anything if anything else happens we were all screwed, Toulon fans flights cancelled too, no home for me now either this Easter.
@Paul Friday Shannon: I was on a plane waiting to taxi out. After about two hours the airport made the crew kick us out as we needed to go through security before we could take off. So that put us just outside arrivals with the line going from there to the departures. Ten people wide and a few hundred meters long.
have your say