A St. John’s based drone service provider is expanding its operations and has positioned itself as the first global certification body for ISO 2184-3 unmanned flight and operational procedures. Altomaxx Chief Operational Officer Steve Priestly says they wanted to become ISO certified, because they fly offshore and over critical infrastructure, but soon learned there was no certification body in place – anywhere in the world. The company then took about two years to become a certification body. Priestly says they had no idea that’s the direction they’d be heading in when they got started. “And just earlier last year we achieved that status” says Priestly. “Currently, any company globally that wants to have their drone program certified, actually has to come to Altomaxx based here in St. John’s, Newfoundland to do that certification process, so it’s been a giant success.” Priestly says they’re working at becoming a world leader, particularly when it comes to commercial inspections services using drones. That includes difficult and hard to reach places. One of their specialties is confined space inspections with the use of drones. “So we can actually fly inside of tanks, we can fly inside of ships, we can fly down in sewers.” Those are historically places where workers would have to spend time in confined spaces for long periods of time. “Now we can put drones in there” says Priestly, “there’s no such thing as job loss within that market, the same crews are still going in, making those confined space inspections, but now they only have to be within a confined space for a very minimal amount of time instead of extended periods.” Priestly is heading to Norway in the coming weeks to see if they can open an office in that country as well. Resource: vocm.com