[prot]

I still find it hard to believe there is no cheap autonomous way of tracking an airplane. If flightradar24.com works, it means airplanes can transmit their location. If they can transmit their location it means there must be a way to create an autonomous protected module in each airplane that works no matter what.

[izacus]

Exploded transponders don't work. Radio waves don't really pierce water at all.

You're (as alot of other people) are grossly underestimating the problem of tracking things across oceans.

Not to mention the other simple fact: what's the point? Is there a difference if plane is found 1 day or 14 days after crash? Reliable tracking would be a huge investment into a system that at the end, wouldn't make much difference in survivability or cause of accidents.

[oneeyedpigeon]

> Is there a difference if plane is found 1 day or 14 days after crash?

If you're a relative of someone who was on board, yes, yes there is.

[blantonl]

Flightradar24 works on the premise of volunteers providing ground stations to decode ADS-B transmissions from the aircraft.

Two variables here: 1) ADS-B Transmissions are line of sight, so once you are far enough off shore there are no ground stations to receive the data 2) Ground stations are provided by volunteers, so there isn't a critical mass of volunteers that provides 100% coverage over even ground locations