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French Government Accident Investigation Organization Recommends Mandatory Aircraft Data Streaming

Dépèche transmise le 16 août 2011 par Business Wire

French Government Accident Investigation Organization Recommends Mandatory Aircraft Data Streaming

CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (“BEA”) accident investigation organization has recommended mandatory triggered data streaming technology on passenger aircraft.

“…that EASA and ICAO make mandatory as quickly as possible, for airplanes making public transport flights with passengers over maritime or remote areas, triggering of data transmission to facilitate localisation as soon as an emergency situation is detected on board”

The recommendation is contained in the third Interim Report of the BEA on the loss of the Air France flight 447. The report, released July 29, outlines 10 new Safety Recommendations including a recommendation that the International Civil Aviation Organization (“ICAO”) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (“EASA”) require triggered data transmission from an aircraft in flight in the near future.

The BEA recommends:

In the past 24 months, AeroMechanical Services Limited (TSX VENTURE: AMA) (the "Company” or "AMA") participated in the BEA’s data recovery and triggered data transmission working groups. The Company demonstrated its on-demand triggered data streaming technology, FLYHTStream^TM, on operational commercial aircraft to representatives from international organizations, manufacturers and operators. AMA intends to meet the requirements of the rule-making proposal of the BEA, including to automatically transmit the exact position of an aircraft and key black box data in real time.

”FLYHTStream has demonstrated triggered data streaming feasibility and technical maturity to the extent that a highly-respected international agency is confident in the benefits of triggered data transmission for the industry and traveling public,” said Richard Hayden, AMA’s president.

“We are proud of our initiative to invest in this enabling technology and our support of the industry evaluation process to date, and we are pleased that our technology has been favourably considered by a respected and influential independent agency. We are the only firm to have demonstrated continuous real-time delivery of black box data from an aircraft in flight and we hope the BEA’s recommendation will be adopted.”

FLYHTStream was first tested in 2009 (Follow links to view past press releases, June 12, 2009; Aug 11, 2009; Oct 19, 2009; Feb 8 2010; Oct 19, 2010) and is deployed on aircraft operated by several of AMA’s commercial transport customers and has also been demonstrated on a Hawker Beechcraft business jet, as announced on May 17, 2011.

The primary use of AMA’s tools are to assist in supporting normal operations with in-flight troubleshooting. In an emergency, FLYHTStream provides position and data continuously from anywhere on the globe. Flight tests and triggering during normal airline operations have proven that accurate position reports and hundreds of data parameters can be sent continuously from an aircraft to the ground, on demand. FLYHTStream is activated in one of three ways; automatically by a set of predetermined criteria (triggered transmission), by the pilot, or by ground personnel. When it is activated, it provides position and other data to subject matter experts, air traffic control, and search and rescue, and also provides auditory and visual messages in operations control centers as well as delivers critical details to cell phones or pagers to ensure all essential personnel are notified of the situation.

The system that enables FLYHTStream, AMA’s Automated Flight Information Reporting System (“AFIRS^TM”), can determine which data is outside normal operating ranges in real time. AFIRS then automatically transmits a message and supporting data to ground personnel and enables voice and text communication between the cockpit and the ground.

About AeroMechanical Services

AeroMechanical Services Ltd., under the brand name FLYHT^TM, provides proprietary technological products and services designed to reduce costs and improve efficiencies in the airline industry. The Company has patented and commercialized three products and associated services currently marketed to airlines, manufacturers and maintenance organizations around the world. Its premier technology, AFIRS™ UpTime™, allows airlines to monitor and manage aircraft operations anywhere, anytime, in real time. If an aircraft encounters an emergency, AMA’s triggered data streaming mode, FLYHTStream™, automatically streams vital data, normally secured in the black box, to designated sites on the ground in real time. The company has been publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange since 2003 under the trading symbol AMA.

AFIRS, UpTime, FLYHT, FLYHTStream and aeroQ are trademarks of AeroMechanical Services Ltd.

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