3 New Ideas For Finding Lost Planes
popsci.comThe second method listed is effectively the same as the U/AIS system that ships use[0]. The "U" stands for "Universal", from which we can deduce that actually only about 60% of ships actually use it.
The technology already exists, it just needs to be mandated for aircraft.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System