Dennis Jankelow

In September 1999 a Bell 206B, ZS-REB, disappeared. A search was launched which concentrated on the Knysna forest area and lasted several weeks. Nothing was found. Then, in 2007, some 8 years later, the wreck of the aircraft was discovered deep in the forest, still containing the bodies of the occupants.

On 1 March 2000, a Cessna 414 left Gaborone for Maun and suffered an in-flight engine failure. The aircraft crash-landed in an area of dense forest. The pilot and one passenger decided to seek assistance, leaving two injured passengers at the crash site. It took 4 days before they came across a hunting party and were able to alert the authorities, who rescued the remaining passengers the following day.

In 2001, a Christen Husky was reported missing in Kenya’s Masai Mara reserve. The aircraft was discovered 6 weeks later, together with evidence that the occupants had been attacked, killed and eaten by lions.

In 2003, A Seneca with 2 on board went missing in Tanzania; a Beech 90 took off from Maputo, headed out to sea and was never seen again; a Metroliner, with 14 people on board, left Nairobi for a scenic flight around Mount Kenya and didn’t return: the wreck was discovered after a search lasting more than a day.

On April 2006, a Cessna Caravan was reported missing en route between Goma and Bunia in the DRC. It was located two days later on the Ugandan side of the border. All on board perished.

In May 2006, a Cessna 172 took off from Lanseria for Madikwe. It failed to arrive and a search was launched. The aircraft had strayed off course, meaning that the search was being conducted in the wrong area. Eventually the aircraft was found, together with the body of the pilot.

More recently, in February 2007, a Seneca III left Togo en route to South Africa and disappeared. It was found several months later, having crashed onto a mountaintop in Nigeria. The pilot died. April 2007 saw the disappearance of a Diamond DA20 which had strayed off course over the Kalahari Desert; it was found 3 days later. In August 2007, a Bonanza 36 left Accra on its ferry flight to South Africa. It was never seen again, despite an extensive air search. In November 2007, a Squirrel helicopter crashed inAngola with the loss of all on board. It was found after a search that lasted more than 24 hours. In December 2007, a Cessna 210 failed to arrive at its destination and a massive search was launched, lasting several weeks before the wreck was found near Willowmore.

In January 2008, a Piper Cherokee was reported missing in the name Swartberg type Mountains. The search lasted several days before the wreck was located.

And the list goes on and on. These are only a small sample of the aircraft accidents that have occurred in southern Africa over the past few years which have involved missing aircraft and extensive searches lasting days, weeks, months or even years. Further afield, US explorer Steve Fossett was recently declared dead, having disappeared on a private flight in Nevada despite one of the biggest searches ever launched in North America involving dozens of aircraft and hundreds of people.

Imagine if an aircraft were to be reported missing just minutes after a mishap, together with an accurate location to bring search and rescue authorities directly to the aircraft, enabling them to recover the crew or passengers inside the Golden Hour? How many of those who died in the incidents described above might have survived if they had been rescued immediately and transferred to medical facilities?

Even if the occupants did not survive the accident, how much anguish and pain would relatives, friends and colleagues be spared by knowing within hours what had befallen the aircraft? Can there be anything worse than waiting for news as a search lengthens from minutes and hours into days, weeks and even months, not knowing whether the occupants of the aircraft had died or were perhaps critically injured, waiting for rescue, before succumbing to exposure or, even worse, to attack from animals or hostile inhabitants of the crash region?

As dramatic as all this may sound, the fact remains that dozens of aircraft are reported missing every year throughout the world.

Many flights are conducted under VFR, but even where flight plans have been filed, it is often difficult to pinpoint the location of a missing aircraft and the search effort can take many days.

The solution to this problem, particularly in the vast areas of Africa that lend themselves so well to aviation activity, is real-time tracking of the aircraft.

Given the generally poor GSM coverage in Africa, any effective tracking system must utilise satellite technology. Furthermore, only aviation-approved and certified systems can be legally installed in aircraft.

A new low-cost satellite tracking solution for general aviation aircraft has recently been launched in Australia, which is set to revolutionise the aviation industry throughout the world.

The Indigo One tracking and communication system, produced by IndigoSat Pty Ltd, Sydney, is a low-cost, fully CASA-approved and certified aviation product which is now available in South Africa.

The unit is permanently installed in the avionics stack and includes a satellite antenna.

The system includes bidirectional communication between the aircraft and any Internet-ready device (a PC, laptop, notebook, PDA, cell phone, etc.). A library of pre-loaded messages, as well as a 40-character input screen, enables the pilot to communicate quickly and easily, whether it’s to confirm the number of passengers on board or to send a Valentine’s message to someone special!

The aircraft is tracked, in real-time, on a PC utilising IndigoTrack licensed software which includes Jeppesen aviation charts as well as Google Earth, enabling the location of the aircraft to be pinpointed right down to the precise location on the apron!

Whilst the location of the aircraft is recorded every 1 second and stored in the IndigoOne unit for later downloading, the location is automatically sent to the Inmarsat D satellite constellation at pre-determined intervals, ranging from as little as 1 minute to 6 minutes or longer, as selected by the aircraft operator.

An emergency alert facility, activated by the pilot by pressing two buttons simultaneously, will force-send the current location to the satellite and onwards to the IndigoTrack servers, located in Sydney, Johannesburg and Atlanta, and thence or any users who are specified in the software set-up. In addition, the Indigo One unit automatically records excessive G-forces or heavy landings and will send an instant notification message via satellite, enabling the aircraft operator to take immediate action.

Management reports are fully-customisable but typically will show all flights undertaken during the selected time period, including date, start and end times, departure and destination airfields and duration. Each pilot is given a log-in code, enabling the operator to keep track of flight times for individual crew members.

Individual flights can been tracked as they take place, or can be replayed after the event, including via the Google Earth overlay, to show exact routing, altitude, speed, direction, etc.

Access to the aircraft may be granted by the aircraft owner or operator, to as many users as required. Hence, aircraft being operated on a contract basis may be tracked by the customer. But perhaps more importantly, the owner of an aircraft can track his asset while it is being operated anywhere in the world, only provided that he has Internet access.

There have been occasions when a charter company has deliberately disconnected the Hobbs on an aircraft in order to be able to fly additional hours which are not subsequently recorded in the logbooks. Quite apart from the safety aspect, this increases wear and tear on the aircraft and deprives the owner of income to which he is entitled. The Indigo One system prevents this from happening. Even if the system is turned off, the built-in “stay-awake” facility will enable an alert to be sent to the designated user who is then able to reactivate the unit over the satellite link WITHOUT the unit appearing to be operational.

The IndigoTrack software also allows the user to define “Geo-fences” and to thereafter receive an immediate notification if the aircraft enters or leaves the specified area. Such an alert can also be displayed on the unit itself, to act as a warning to the crew that they are, for example, straying into prohibited territories: a Learjet was shot down over Eritrea several years ago, when the crew inadvertently strayed over the border without authority.

The IndigoOne system is distributed in South Africa by IndigoSat (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, a member of the Air Affairs Group and a sister company to specialist aviation insurance brokers, Dennis Jankelow & Associates. DJ&A have secured special insurance benefits for their clients who use the IndigoOne system, given the lowered exposure to loss that the IndigoOne system can create: reduced search and rescue expenses, early rescue of injured crew or passengers and the immediate recording of potential damage from heavy landings or excessive G-forces, which may result in catastrophic damage if unattended.

For more information regarding the IndigoOne from IndigoSat, visit the website on www.indigosat.com or contact IndigoSat on +27 11 463-5550.