Commercial flights to report positions every 15 minutes under UN's proposed safety standards

In the wake of the disappearance of a Malaysian aircraft, the United Nations aviation agency is set to propose a new standard that will make it mandatory for commercial flights to report their positions every 15 minutes as part of a global tracking initiative.

The loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which went missing last March, sparked a global campaign to devise a system that would make it possible to track the exact route and last location of an aircraft, reported The Guardian.

The proposal will be discussed by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) members at a major safety conference in Montreal next month.

ICAO spokesman Anthony Philbin said on Tuesday that if the safety conference adopts the standard, it will be asked how quickly it expects it to be implemented and if it wants the ICAO to expedite that process. He added that the standard, if approved, could go into effect soon because it would not require new any technology on planes.

ICAO could effectively enforce the standard on airlines because the standards set by it become binding for its 191 member states. However, the agency prefers to make decisions by consensus, making February's conference crucial.