The Small Canadian Airline That Already Has the Flight-Tracking System of the Future

Two and a half years before MH370 went missing, a small Canadian airline already had started installing flight-tracking system of the future. First Air, a  regional carrier which serves routes from Ottawa, Canada to the Arctic, had plenty of motivation to consider systems other larger carriers have lagged behind in adopting. Their decision to activate the FLYHT's FLYHTStream system was only recently announced, making this Canadian regional carrier an industry first. While many airlines today, even after the disappearance of MH370, debate the need for Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS) or alternative forms of advanced flight tracking and "black box" data transmission, claiming that Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) already provide some of the functionality, First Air couldn't rely on ACARS to govern their flights. As Victor Charlebois, Vice President of Flight Operations at First Air explains, that's because ACARS are one-way communications systems and rely on radar connections or spotty satellite pings. First Air doesn't have radar available along on its routes in remote locations north all the way to the arctic circle. The airline serves only two airports with paved runways and often confronts harsh weather conditions which take down the necessary radio and telephone communications for the automatic departure and arrival messages protocols, which they previously relied on to determine the status of their flights. "We now have multiple methods to communicate," Charlebois tells us. With AFIRS onboard their aircraft, and FLYHTStream activated, First Air can now obtain live information on their flights, monitoring them on television screens along their flight path, as well as helpful aircraft health alerts which notify them of any components which might require maintenance on landing. Additionally, the FLYHTStream system allows pilots to trigger a notification to the ground that the flight is in trouble, simply by pushing a button, and the system immediate