Op-Ed: Out of Control - airplane transponders at heart of mysterious Malaysian flight

A New York Times opinion-editorial by Gregg Easterbrook draws parallels to the deadly 9/11 airplane crashes and the disappearance of Maylasian Airlines Flight 370. The key issue: airplane transponders.

Easterbrook co-authored a book a few months after 9/11, contributing in the aviation security chapter. Titled, “How Did This Happen?” and published by the Council on Foreign Relations, the book examines the mistakes leading up to the moment two jetliners redirected their course on a suicide mission for Manhattan’s Twin Towers.

Almost 13 years later, Easterbrook says the on-board transponders that broadcast an aircraft’s location and identity are at play in another commercial jet mystery.

“The issue today is exactly as it was on 9/11,” Easterbrook writes. “Pilots like their locations to be known – for ground assistance, and because the transponder warns other nearby planes of their course and altitude. Only a hijacker at the controls of an aircraft would want the transponder silent.”

The author calls for airline industry design changes to make it impossible for transponders to be turned off.

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