JetBlue Upgrades FOQA Gear

Air Safety Week, Jan 21, 2008

JetBlue Airways has decided to use the more comprehensive Flightscape Insight product suite for its Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) Program.

JetBlue purchased Insight|Animation and Insight|Analysis in 2005 to investigate and communicate FOQA events of high interest and/or complexity.

Steve Predmore, vice president of safety at JetBlue said "Flightscape has impressed us with the animation and investigation products and has provided us with an exceptional level of support. We have decided to replace our existing FOQA system with their Insight|FDM product in order to have one continuous and integrated system with the high level of attention that we have come to expect from Flightscape."

Canada's Flightscape, part of CAE's training solutions group, offers flight safety expertise in flight data analysis and flight sciences. Flightscape develops software tools that enable the effective study and understanding of recorded flight data to improve safety, maintenance and flight operations.

Insight/FDM provides a familiar 'Windows' look and feel and extensive user customization features. The system is highly configurable, allowing the user to view a complex or simple snapshot of each event and the associated flight data.

Flightscape software also powers IATA's web-based Flight Data Analysis (FDA) Service to provide Flight Data Monitoring and Flight Operations Quality Assurance as an out-source service to airlines who do not wish to invest in the infrastructure of an in-house program. IATA says outsourcing FDA work to IATA is a cost-effective way to participate in the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program and the standards and best practices effort of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Flight data, extracted directly from an aircraft's Flight Data Recorder (FDR) or Quick Access Recorder (QAR), is routinely analyzed, enabling users to highlight risk areas in daily operations. The value of FDA is further enhanced by IATA's unique ability to share lessons learned across the airline community, increasing global industry safety levels.\

Under the FDA Service, air carriers maintain full ownership to their flight data. A secure Web-based interface allows airlines to access results anytime and anywhere in the world. The system downloads de-identified electronic data from aircraft, then uploads the data to the IATA FDA Service.

Flightscape develops flight recorder laboratories including complete turnkey systems. The firm's mission is to improve safety on an international basis by having the operator, investigative and aircraft manufacturer communities collaborate on flight data analysis issues with a common suite of continually advancing tools.

[Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]