It's important to note that the substance of the article here is not about improving tracking of airplanes while they are flying (which actually does very little to keep them from disappearing if a catastrophe stops them from flying) but is actually about tracking weather more accurately by gaining real-time data from other aircraft in the vicinity. This suggestion might indeed have helped prevent the most recent Air Asia crash, and perhaps also the Air France crash from several years ago. It takes good information to respond to rapidly developing storms at high altitude over the ocean, and to advise pilots how to change their courses (along heavily trafficked airline routes) to avoid both dangerous weather and collisions with other planes.