SAN DIEGO -- A new in-flight monitoring system was successfully demonstrated on Monday. The system is the brainchild of wireless communications company Qualcomm and uses the Globalstar satellite system.

In a live demonstration involving Qualcomm's MDSS Globalstar Communications System and a Challenger 604 business jet, the company showed how a system originally intended to supply Internet access for business travelers could simultaneously be used to provide in-flight streaming video and audio monitoring of airplane cabins and cockpits.

Though some airborne participants in the demonstration had trouble switching microphones on and off, the public test in a San Diego-area airplane hangar successfully piped high-speed data from 37,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean.

Qualcomm said it is seeking FAA certification for its MDSS system, after which it would begin selling the technology to airlines or airplane manufacturers.

In addition to sending data at speeds of 128 kilobits per second, suitable for low-resolution video surveillance or airplane interiors, the MDSS system could also be used to transmit real-time data about flight systems. In addition, the system provides Internet access for e-mail, instant messaging and Web browsing.

In Monday's demonstration, passengers in the air tested the system's bandwidth by sending a large file attachment using the Eudora e-mail client at the same time that the system was transmitting streaming audio and video.

Company officials said using the Globalstar system for monitoring planes in the air isn't dramatically different than some of its other applications in the transportation industry.

"At Qualcomm, for example, we run a 24/7 center monitoring the trucking industry ... around the United States," said Irwin Jacobs, the company's chairman and CEO. "If there's a hazardous-materials truck that has our satellite system on board, then we watch to see if there's an emergency and can take appropriate actions. That's a similar kind of thing to [monitoring] the much smaller number of commercial aircraft in flight at any given time."