Member states of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommended the adoption of a tracking standard for aircraft that requires them to report their positions at 15-minute intervals. During a safety conference the organization held at its Montreal headquarters from February 2 to 5, participants also endorsed a new conflict zone risk mitigation work program. Their actions responded to a pair of disasters last year involving Malaysia Airlines—the disappearance of Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean in March and the missile shootdown of MH17 over Ukraine in July.

The recommended aircraft tracking standard is “performance-based and not prescriptive,” ICAO said, meaning that airlines would be able to comply with it using existing and planned technologies and procedures. But it is considered only a first step toward implementation of a more comprehensive Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System the organization developed after MH370, a Boeing 777-200, disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The proposed system is a three-tiered approach to tracking covering normal, abnormal and distress conditions.

ICAO will make available the 15-minute standard for comment by its 191 member states by the end of February; adoption by the 36-state ICAO Council is expected as early as this fall, stated Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, the council president. At the same time, the organization is developing requirements and implementation “assistance measures” for the longer term, tiered tracking system in consultation with standards organizations RTCA in the U.S. and Eurocae in Europe.

The 850 government and industry participants who attended the High Level Safety Conference endorsed the work program ICAO’s Task Force on Risks to Civil Aviation arising from Conflict Zones adopted in December. The task force, assembled after MH17 was allegedly shot down by pro-Russian separatists, determined that goverments and airlines need to improve how they share information on conflict zones and develop risk assessments for specific conflict areas. It proposed an online database to aggregate the intelligence.

“The intention is for this central repository to be hosted by ICAO and to serve as a single source for up-to-date risk assessments from states and relevant international organizations,” said Raymond Benjamin, secretary general. “Importantly, it would also link all risk assessment data presented with the state or organization which provided it, and a suitable legal framework would be established to ensure that ICAO would not face liability implications arising from the information which states and agencies submit.”