Aircraft Tracking in Malaysian Airspace - Avoid Another MH370

The whole country was in shocked when MH370 was missing from Malaysian airspace to the unknown destination on 8 March 2014. In fact, some of us are still grieving. It is the unknown destination which make it harder for the related families to accept the fate. A few of them are still pursuing the matter.

A few months before the airplane was missing, my friends and I were planning a new project to keep track any aircraft in Malaysian airspace. One of the reasons to track the aircrafts is the information is not shared by DCA Malaysia nor military of Malaysia. Although aircraft traffic information is available to anybody (from FAA perspective), in Malaysia, there is no well known hobbyist group which accurately keep tracking the aircraft traffic for the public.

There are a few advantages to keep track the aircraft of our interest. For example in case of MH370, the above diagram shows that if I am the relative of one of the passengers, I will question Malaysian authority, why the aircraft is diverting from its flight path. The alert from the public will ensure the authorities are always at their toes. Although the transponder was terminated, the flight diversion already appear in the screen. And the future flight path can be projected where MH370 should reenter Malaysian FIR (Flight Information Region). Once the authorities are being alerted, Malaysian Military have no choice but should have sent a fighter jet to investigate.

Currently, my research team is lacking of any research grant to develop a complete nation wide monitoring station for the public. Luckily, being an electronic engineer, we still able to continue our research and development at minimum cost. We are able to develop relevant electronic equipment from scratch to minimize the cost.  And we are also working together with a local company who are interested to commercialize the system. The company is responsible to develop the GUI, database, server and security of the system. While my R&D team should focus on the hardware. We are looking forward for any party or individual who want to donate or invest in this project.

Due to limited budget, we tested the system at the roof top of my house instead of at a permanent station.

I want to check the signal strength from my house.

My children were also interested. But I did not allow any of them to climb for safety reason.

From Skudai, Johor Bahru, Johor, the system can detect aircrafts up to Negeri Sembilan and Kuantan, Pahang.

This is what we have tested at the northern region. The GUI shows that it is possible to monitor aircrafts up to gulf of Thailand. And we already formulated several ways to monitor aircrafts up to Andaman sea.

I hope my team's work can prevent any future MH370 incident. Any donation or investment can help our research group to commercialize the services and prevent future incident.

For more information, you can visit my university blog from time to time at http://zulfakar.fke.utm.my or specifically for the time being at http://zulfakar.fke.utm.my/in-the-news/aircrafttrackinginmalaysianairspace-avoidanothermh370