Article content

Almost seven months after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished, Ottawa-based Nav Canada is announcing a global emergency tracking system to minimize the horror of more lost airliners.

The service is to be offered free worldwide to authorized rescue agencies beginning in 2018, potentially saving lives and search, rescue and recovery costs.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Nav Canada leads global effort to prevent lost airliners Back to video

The move, announced Monday, is an offshoot of a planned space-based aircraft surveillance network called Aireon. The major partners in the joint venture are U.S. Iridium Communications Inc. and Nav Canada, the not-for-profit, private Ottawa company managing Canada’s commercial airspace.

The chief intent is to vastly improve the ability to track airliners in remote airspace. More than 75 per cent of Earth’s surface is still invisible to air traffic controllers.

But the unsolved MH370 tragedy and the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 into a desolate patch of ocean between Brazil and Senegal have highlighted the additional need for a no-fee, global emergency tracking service.