Malaysia to stress on real-time aircraft tracking to ICAO

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KUALA LUMPUR: The need to implement real-time aircraft tracking and sharing of information pertaining to flight risks are among issues to be forwarded by Malaysia to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Council which meets in Canada next week.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said in light of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flights MH17 and MH370 tragedies, it was clear that the international community must collaborate closely and take greater steps to improve safety and security in civil aviation.

“Malaysia intends to present its views and input to the ICAO Council with a view to seeking consensus on this matter,” Liow, who is currently visiting the United States (US) in relation to the incidents, said in a statement yesterday.

The 203rd session of the ICAO Council is scheduled to take place in the Canadian city of Montreal.

Meanwhile, Liow, who held talks with US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in Washington DC on Friday, said Malaysia appreciated the

support extended by the US government in the aftermath of the twin tragedies which befell MAS.

Malaysia, he said, was also appreciative of US support of a resolution before the ICAO Council on Flight MH17 which was destroyed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people aboard.

“Specifically, the ICAO resolution strongly reaffirms the need for all states to comply with international law that prohibits acts of violence that pose a threat to the safety of international civil aviation,” he added.

Liow said it also stressed the importance of all states assisting with the continuation and finalisation of a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident.

Flight MH370 with 239 people on board vanished on March 8, while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

The search for the Malaysian jetliner has entered the deep-sea phase in the southern Indian Ocean, believed to be the aircraft’s final resting place.

Flight MH17 was shot down over a restive region of Ukraine while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. — Bernama