The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has successfully completed trials of space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which will be used in all aircrafts. This technology will allow an aircraft to automatically send its location updates via satellites to air traffic controllers (ATC). Till now, unless the pilot updated his location while flying in an oceanic region to ATC, his location remained unknown. With this development, chances of incidents like disappearance of Malaysian airline aircraft can be avoided. Moving forward, AAI is planning to start using this technology to keep surveillance over complete oceanic traffic within the Indian airspace.
“We have already started receiving the signals and we are running trials in the back-up system. We keep cross checking data received via satellites, and till date we have found all the information to be timely and accurate for the aircraft. The system gets refreshed every 8 seconds, which means that we get an updated location along with various other details of all the aircraft flying in the oceanic region every eight seconds. This technology is also able to give the latest location details with a maximum delay of just two seconds,” said a senior AAI official. Earlier, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), from January 1, 2020 mandated all Indian aircraft to be equipped with the technology. Following which, AAI entered an agreement with the company and has been testing the technology in their back-up system. Currently Chennai and Mumbai airports are running the trails.
This technology provider company named ‘Aireon’ has been certified as an air navigation service provider for ADS-B by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) which is a safety and security watchdog of European Union with responsibility for civil aviation safety. India will be the first country in South Asia to start operating space-based ADS-B. When system will be in use, an aircraft will update about its position with the help of its on-board computer system with the sensor, which will be picked up by the local Air Traffic Control (ATC) for keeping surveillance over an aircraft. Since these updates will be accurate, it will not only enhance passenger safety but also lets ATCs to efficiently use the information to apply optimum separations between two aircraft flying in the same region.
Several countries have mandated this technology as essential equipment for aircraft. Some experts said that at present we have a system in place called ADS-C, which sends automatic messages through satellites every 27 minutes, and hence raises concern on aviation safety due to excessive time difference in receiving updates.