India hesitant on sharing airspace data with Pakistan

NEW DELHI: With bilateral relations between Pakistan and India remain fragile, the trust deficit emanating out of it is likely to affect the cooperation in civil aviation airspace. 

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) which is planning to install Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), a surveillance based technology for civil aviation safety on buoyancy all around the country’s oceanic boundaries has recently showed its apprehension to UN-backed International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), about sharing the data with its hostile neighbour.

The insiders feel that data which has live update about the exact positions of the aircraft apart from other sensitive details may be misused by anti-social or non-state actors from the country to harm India’s interests. 

“We have informed ICAO of our apprehensions in regard to sharing of data which is going to be tremendous in near future,” said PK Bandopadhyay, ED (Planning), CNS, AAI during DISHA, a seminar held in Delhi to discuss the development of indigenous technologies in civil aviation. Talking about installing ADS-B on water using buoyancy Bandopadhyay said, “it will make the plane constantly remain in contact with the ground”. 

ICAO has been asking the airlines and aviation regulators around the world to develop a foolproof mechanism by way of which the aircraft’s position and its related data can be continuously tracked at all time when the plane is in air. The demand gained thrust after a Malaysian airline plane MH-370 went missing in 2014 without an iota of trace, leaving the investigators high and dry. 

As per the aviation experts, air traffic service providers and regulators worldwide are moving from radar based surveillance to ADS-B to track airplanes in flight and on the ground more accurately and reliably. However, the changes require are to be equipped in new and existing planes, which obviously come at a premium, which many of the domestic airlines in India at present are trying to avoid in absence of any regulation related to it. 

“The domestic airlines so far have been hesitant in installation of the equipment, especially in the age of cost cutting and savings,” said a senior Communication and Navigation System (CNS) official from Mumbai. 

According to a report prepared by aircraft manufacturer Boeing on ADS-B uses a combination of satellites, transmitters and receivers to provide both flight crews and ground control personnel with very specific information about the location and speed of airplanes in the area. 

The aviation legal experts said though India is a member of UN-backed aviation treaties and conventions which mandate sharing of information among the member nations, a country can withhold some information which is not general in nature. However, the common information needs to be shared.