Recently, the importance of such a system was realized when Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 with 239 passengers and crew on board mysteriously vanished about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur early March 8. The Boeing 777-200ER was initially presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea and the search area was later widened off the Australian coast. The wreckage is yet to be located.

A senior official with the communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) arm of the AAI told IANS that satellite-based location systems like Gagan can be used in providing an aircraft's location to ground-based tracking units.

"Gagan's job is to provide GPS-based location of the aircraft to pilots, thereby saving fuel. The system can also provide real-time satellite-based location to ground handlers," the CNS official said.

"Gagan can work in various phases of the aircraft's flight from takeoff, cruising and landing. This system then can be used to pinpoint the exact location of the aircraft even if a crash has occurred."

"This can be beneficial in averting such incidents (like MH 370) in the future," the official added.

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