Time for the internet of transportation

Terrorist acts are horrible and senseless. It gets even worse if the terrorists get the opportunity to obfuscate information and even deny others to come in and collect evidence to bring those responsible to justice. As it looks now, flight MH17 was shot down by Russian led “rebels” who received a shiny new toy from their masters in Moscow. Proudly they tweeted about their capability to shoot any plane out of the sky, falling just short of taking selfies with their deadly new gadget. Even Putin should have realised that you can’t give goons high tech equipment and not expect them to use it. When they did, 298 innocent people were brutally murdered.

To add insult to injury, instead of admitting their mistake and turning themselves in, the goons are denying aid- and recovery organisations access to the site. In a clear attempt to sweep evidence under the rug they have removed at least a few of the black boxes from what is basically a large crime scene. It is as if Al Qaeda would have had the opportunity to loot the bodies of victims and remove evidence at will after 9/11. The world is looking on and has done nothing but shake their collective fists.

Apart from the emotional and moral questions that this case inevitably creates, there is also a technical one. Why do airplanes still rely on “black boxes” to record critical information? In today’s world, where we are now talking about the “internet of things” it should be not too difficult to create a network of satellites, to provide a seamless information highway for airplanes. Flight MH370 disappeared without a trace. Collecting information on flightMH17 will be more difficult now the crime scene has been compromised.  

If there’s one thing to be learned from these two disasters it is that any form of mass transportation is vulnerable to criminals and terrorists. No amount of x-ray portals, invasive body searches and confiscation of water bottles will help you if anyone can just shoot you down from the ground.

Google is building driver-less cars. SpaceX wants to fly people to the moon for vacation. People like Elon Musk are hailed as “visionaries” when they come with highly impractical but media-sexy plans for future transportation. So why not put a fraction of that innovative thinking to good use and devise an unhackable way of sending out information? Why aren’t airplanes sending out streams and streams of data about their location, condition, flight path and anything else that may help in case of an emergency? Why do airplanes need to carry their own evidence box? Why do we need radar to find out where a plane or boat is?

It probably wouldn’t make the existing modes of transportation safer. However, it would deter terrorists like Putin’s goons to shoot down a civilian airplane if they have half a collective brain cell. They would know they wouldn’t be able to hide the  evidence.  I’m not talking about a shady government organisation owning the intel and changing whatever they see as unfit for public knowledge. Make this information instant, public and verifiable and let anyone have access.  With real time flight information gathered in a transparent way, it should be easier to find the people responsible for these acts.