A new warning system that became compulsory in Australian airliners this month could have helped avoid Australias worst air disaster in 40 years.

Fifteen people died when a 19-seat Metroliner aircraft crashed into a mountain and exploded in flames while trying to land at Lockhart River in far north Queensland on May 7.

Aviation lawyer Peter Carter said the $60,000 system, now compulsory on all planes carrying more than 10 people, would have helped the two pilots avoid the mountain peak.

“The instrument knows the aircrafts position from satellite tracking and has a memory of the particular geography of that location and so it can look ahead and predict terrain which the aircraft is about to pass,” Mr Carter has told ABC televisions Four Corners program, to be aired tonight.

I’ve no doubt that with that system installed the pilots would have been able to avert the collision,” he said.