China has sent many ships and airplanes to search for and rescue the missing Malaysia airlines plane, but it has not yet been found. The international community hopes that the plane will be spotted soon. The incident offers lessons to air transport industry.

It’s time for the “black box” to be upgraded.

Modern passenger planes are fitted with equipment known as Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). The “Black box” provides reliable information about how air crashes happen. However, after more than 100 hours, there is still no information about what happened to the missing Malaysia plane. This suggests that on this occasion the ACARS system and the “black box” of the plane did not work.

Some senior pilots have called for an upgrading of the current “black box” to enable black-box data to be transmitted in real time via satellite. Further, the dead zones of radar detection should be reduced and the means of communication between pilots and air traffic controllers should be improved.

The “loopholes” of security checks should be closed.

Two men boarded the missing Malaysian Airline flight with fake passports. This exposed loopholes in security checks. Such loopholes should be closed. Malaysia Airlines did not promptly make public the news that the airline had lost contact with the plane. Such delays are detrimental to the salvage work and therefore should be avoided.

The rescue still continues. As long as there is hope, the rescue will not be halted. Endless efforts should be put into improving the security of air travel.


The article is edited and translated from《客机失联能警醒民航业吗》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author: Hua Yiwen.