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Chinese who will soon travel abroad by air-and over water-will find comfort knowing their aircraft will be continuously tracked by satellites orbiting in space.
The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 last March 8 was traced to ground radars losing touch with the aircraft for most of its the ill-fated flight. MH370 was on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 persons aboard, 153 of whom were Chinese.
The area in the deep south of the Indian Ocean now being searched is also out of radar coverage of any country. This fact has made it extremely difficult to pinpoint the wreckage of MH370.
Inmarsat Plc, a British satellite telecommunications company, said it will offer free basic tracking services for aircraft flying over oceans and seas in the hope of preventing another tragedy such as the one that befell MH370.
The service is being offered to all 11,000 commercial passenger aircraft already equipped with an Inmarsat satellite connection, which includes is most of the world's long-haul commercial fleet.
"This offer responsibly, quickly and at little or no cost to the industry, addresses in part the problem brought to light by the recent tragic events around MH370," said Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce.
The missing flight automatically sent signals to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat after the aircraft's transponder and its communication systems had shut down or were shut down.
The Malaysian government said the plane's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth. MH370 has not yet been found.
Inmarsat said it anticipated the adoption of further safety measures after the loss of MH370. The International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN agency that governs civil aircraft, held a special meeting in Montreal to look at the global tracking of airline flights. ICAO is set to reveal a number of recommendations to improve flight safety over water.
Inmarsart has 10 operational geostationary satellites that provide telephone and data services to users worldwide. Its satellite network Inmarsat's network provides communications services to a governments, aid agencies, media outlets and businesses that need to communicate in remote regions or where there is no reliable terrestrial communications network.
