China will soon start using its homegrown Beidou navigation system (BDS) to track flights of civilian aircraft in a bid to avert air disasters such as that of Malaysian MH 370, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), a test on general aviation will be conducted first by the BDS before it will be used to monitor passenger or cargo flights.
The BDS, which provides navigation, positioning and short message services, is capable of tracing aircrafts and aid search and rescue operations.
"We will first collect data and gather experience in general aviation and then gradually apply the BDS to transport aviation," Wu Chengchang, safety chief of the CAAC, told Xinhua at a recent seminar on BDS application in civil aviation.
China launched the first BDS satellite in 2000 as an alternative to foreign navigation systems, with the country aiming to launch a total of 35 space orbiters to cover the global network by 2020.
Currently, the BDS services cover the Asia Pacific, but will be expanded to include worldwide coverage after its completion.
The Chinese government is making full use of the services of the BDS, as it announced in June that it will use the satellite navigation system to monitor and detect leaks in gas pipelines in more than 100 cities in the country.
The National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASMG) said that a program, which is already being used in 10 cities, will be put in place in other cities using the BDS to detect the leaks.
The urban gas pipelines, which extend to more than 400,000 kilometers, are equipped with pressure transistors that can show low pressure or potential leaks. Using the program and the BDS, authorities hope to identify the location of the leaks.