This $10-per-flight Upgrade Could Have Found the Missing Plane

The missing Malaysian Airlines plane carrying 229 passengers may have been found by now if Malaysia Airlines had upgraded its aircraft data-streaming — a system called Swift 64.

Flight MH370's normal means of communication—a transponder and the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System—went dead, but Swift 64 sends location data to satellites regardless of whether the regular systems are functioning. Swift 64 was embedded on the plane, according to the Washington Post, but not in the advanced form that provides satellites with information such as speed, fuel consumption, engine performance, direction and altitude at regular intervals Read more...