Alsace-based CEFA Aviation has won a contract to supply France's BEA air accident investigation agency with its Flight Animation System (FAS).

CEFA's FAS recreates flights using synthetic imaging, based on flight recorder and black box data and incorporating a wide range of investigation tools. Created in 2000, CEFA Aviation initially worked with airline flight safety departments before expanding into pilot training with the 2017 launch of CEFA Aviation Mobile Services (AMS). This new contract with the BEA sees it grow its presence in a third area: accident investigation.

BEA director Rémi Jouty says that animating the flight data will make it easier for the agency to communicate the results of its investigations. With CEFA FAS, he adds, the BEA will be able to create better reconstructions of flights and understand faster what caused the problems by highlighting the sequence of the pilots’ actions and the technical incidents and malfunctions.

CEFA says that its FAS software is unique in offering over 30 cockpits and high-precision instrument displays, with a broad spectrum of functions. It can be used to recreate the weather conditions, including the type of cloud and external light. Navigation maps can be incorporated, alarms and other sounds accurately reproduced and each of the flight parameters analysed separately. BEA will be supplied with customised software to meet its specific requirements.

CEFA's AMS solution — launched at the Dubai Airshow in November — enables pilots and flight crews to view a re-creation of their own flights within minutes after landing.

The data animation, using real-world flight recorder data, is available for each pilot on mobile tablet via highly secured connections. Pilots and flight crews can debrief based on factual evidence, leading to better understanding of flight events and their root causes.  

Japanese carrier ANA, which has been working with CEFA since 2015, is launch customer for AMS.