Aircraft disappearances continue into the new decade

The most high-profile disappearance involved Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. A Malaysian Ministry of Transport report from July 2018 concluded that "there is a significant lack of evidence available to the Team to determine with any certainty the reasons that the aircraft diverted from its filed flight plan route." The change likely resulted from manual inputs; however, without examining wreckage or flight data recorders (FDR) and cockpit voice recorders (CVR), no plausible failure could be identified.

In response to these disappearances, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) held a Multidisciplinary Meeting on Global Flight Tracking to propose recommendations for faster global tracking. This led to initiatives like the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) concept of operations and Location of an Aircraft in Distress Recovery (LADSR). According to ICAO, LADSR enables airlines to share position information during distress situations with appropriate organizations.

On February 6th, Bering Air's Cessna Caravan registered as N321BA disappeared while operating flight 8E445 from Unalakleet Airport (UNK) to Nome Airport (OME). Ten people were onboard when it went off radar about forty minutes after departure. While not officially deemed missing yet according to ICAO standards—requiring terminated searches without located wreckage—the US Coast Guard has initiated search efforts offshore where contact was lost.