Portsmouth 15-1-10 – McMurdo, a company of the Orolia Group (NYSE Alternext Paris – FR0010501015 – ALORO) announces today that a Fast Find Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) was used to enable Air Traffic Control to track and safely guide a light aircraft to a safe landing, which had suffered a complete electrical failure.

The Fast Find was activated when the aircraft, operated by Oasis Flight, was returning to Oxford from a commercial flight to Pontoise in France on December 19^th 2009.  As the aircraft approached the French Coast at 19.45 the Pilot lost all electrical services and thus had no lighting, navigational equipment or means of radio communication.  The mobile phone had a very poor signal.

The signal from the Fast Find, which is transmitted via the international government-run Search and Rescue Satellite system, was immediately picked up by the French emergency services, Swanwick ATS and Kinloss SAR.  Kinloss contacted Robert Foster, the operator at Oasis Flight, straight away who was able to advise that the Captain’s intention was to seek a suitable en route alternative landing place in Northern France.  However, he was unable to do this and managed a short phone call to explain that he was heading for Oxford.

The Fast Find continued transmitting and allowed the Air Traffic Services, in conjunction with Kinloss,  to continually establish the aircraft’s exact position and monitor the progress of it back to its home base.  Swanwick was able to relay fixes to Oasis which Foster managed to pass on to the Captain to confirm his exact position. The aircraft landed some 90 minutes later without further incident.

Robert Foster said “The McMurdo Fast Find PLB operated perfectly throughout the incident and was a superb piece of equipment to have onboard.  Without the continual transmission supplied by the PLB we would have not been able to monitor the position and progress of the aeroplane as we did.”  He added “This helped to reduce the Captain’s workload in a difficult situation and made sure that we were in control of the situation. We always carry McMurdo PLBs on our aircraft and, needless to say, we will continue to make sure that all of our aircraft are fitted with them.”

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