According to the Australian newspaper Dailymail, an 8-year-old has devised a foolproof system to spot crashed planes in the ocean.
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The young inventor’s name is Benjamin Jensen who is from Ogden, Utah. He is the son of two Air Force One veterans which is part of the United States Air Force for presidential flights. Inspired by his parents’ career, he developed an ingenious idea. The project came to him while watching a show on television called ‘Why do planes disappear?’, about the recently lost Malaysia Airlines flight.
Its purpose is to provide planes with giant orange-coloured balloons made out of reinforced rubber in order to withstand pressure. Floating on the surface, the balloons would be accompanied by RF transmitters. Thanks to this simple and effective technique, in the case of an airplane crash, the balloon-emitters will deploy and the craft could be easily located.
To get his idea out there, he sent a sketch with a letter to the American airline Delta. The recipients were Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta, and John E. Laughter, Vice President of Security, who were both intrigued by the young boy’s idea.
A few weeks later, Benjamin Jensen received a response from Delta, a package with two miniature airplane models, pencils and pens. But he also received a letter signed by John E. Laughter saying that he will pass on his idea to their experts, which seems to him to be quite promising.
