The staff of AeroMechanical Services Ltd. watched the fruitless search for flight-data recorders of Air France Flight 447 in the South Atlantic from afar earlier this year knowing that their technology could have helped to reconstruct the tragedy.

All 228 passengers and crew on board died in the crash en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1. It has proven impossible to recover the flight-data recorders, commonly known as black boxes, from the depths of the ocean, thereby slowing the investigation.

The loss of Flight 447 has focused attention on other ways of collecting flight data - before a pilot reports an emergency. This is where AeroMechanical of Calgary believes it can play a vital role. Its technology can collect most of the black-box information by transmitting the data in real time, via satellite.

"It's high tech, it's energy-efficient, it's green, it's exactly the right kind of company in the aviation sector that you want to have in your back yard," aviation industry analyst Rick Erickson says. "It has all kinds of wonderful upsides."

The fact that the technology already exists will probably cause some regulatory authorities to consider AeroMechanical's product carefully as either a backup or a primary system, Mr. Erickson says.

Airbus, the manufacturer of the doomed airplane, has added to the speculation by saying the company is working toward improving flight data recovery. It has established a working group that will look at a number of options, including data transmission, deployable recorders and enhanced beacons. It will take at least six months for the group to make initial proposals.