( CNN ) -- You do n't have to be an expert to ask yourself the question : How in the world , with today 's technology , can a commercial airplane go missing ? It 's a question , but also an expression of disbelief . Those who get lost driving can use GPS . If you lose your iPhone , there 's an app to track it down . Scientists successfully plotted the course for a spacecraft that landed on a speeding comet . But something goes wrong aboard a 123-foot , 67-ton passenger jet , and rescuers must resort to scouring the ocean ? `` Why is it easier to find an iPhone ( than ) to find a plane ? '' one Twitter user , Catalina Buitano , asked . There are dozens of similar questions on social media . They hint at the same sentiment : In a world where people 's locations are tracked for everything from map apps to what ads appear on a Web browser , why does Big Brother 's gaze avoid the skies ? `` Why , in this day and age , do we rely on the physical recovery of black boxes ? Flight data should be continuously streamed to the cloud , '' read a tweet by Jacob Rossi . Of course , this question has been asked before . The disappearance of AirAsia Flight 8501 on Sunday was the second time this year that a plane vanished . Debris from the Airbus A320-200 has been found , the airline said Tuesday , and two bodies have been found . Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished , too , and remains missing 10 months later . At that time , Jim Hall , the former head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board , called for upgrades to the tracking capabilities of planes that fly for extended periods over water . The airline industry has invested billions of dollars in safety features , `` yet many allow their aircraft to fall off any direct tracking capability as they fly over vast ocean distances and remote locations , confident that these planes will occasionally check in and reappear as they near the other side of the blacked-out area , '' Hall wrote . In a preliminary report on MH370 , Malaysian aviation authorities recommended that the International Civil Aviation Organization look into the benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial aircraft . The technology exists to track flight data in real time , but even after tragedies such as MH370 , cost and government bureaucracy are cited as obstacles to implementation . `` Millions of us can be located immediately through technology in our handheld cell phones , but a 300,000-pound Boeing 777 with 239 souls on board disappears from the face of the Earth , '' Hall wrote , referring to MH370 . `` NASA has the capability of photographing stars billions of light-years away , and yet our best minds are forced to guess where this plane might be . '' Another Twitter user phrased the thought this way : `` If we have astronauts reaching safely the International Space Station , why do we still have missing planes on Earth ? '' CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo says it is time for world leaders to take concrete action on upgrading technology for tracking planes . Making recommendations is n't enough , she said . There need to be laws . `` I think at this day and age , there 's really no excuse for ( not having real-time tracking ) , '' Schiavo said on CNN 's `` New Day '' on Monday . `` I mean , the kind of technology , it 's already here . We do n't have to wait to develop it . Those planes could be sending out continuous signals . '' Two companies with products on the market for real-time streaming are Flyht and Star Navigation Systems . But the technology is not catching on with major carriers . Cost has been the biggest hurdle , though the technology is slowly finding its way onto airplanes , said Seth Kaplan , managing partner at Airline Weekly . Airlines have lobbied for governments to contribute money to equipping planes with new technology , arguing that it is not just an airline issue , but a national security consideration . The question of who will pay for the technology is beginning to get answered , but not as quickly as travelers would like to see , Kaplan said . So , those in disbelief are not alone in wondering how in today 's world a plane could simply get lost . It 's just not an easy question to answer .
Notes : Debris from AirAsia flight has been recovered , officials said ; two bodies recovered . The Question : How can we fly a plane ? There is pressure for new technology to be installed on planes . But there are obstacles that remain .