Rawalpindi-The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has planned to conduct a full-scale Airport Emergency Exercise 2019 today at the Islamabad Airport.
The exercise is aimed at testing the preparedness of all concerned agencies with regard to aircraft accident or any other emergency situation according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and Crisis & Emergency Response Plan (CERP), a spokesman of CAA informed on Tuesday. The purpose of the exercise is to establish coordination amongst the participating agencies to carry out rescue and fire operations in case of aircraft crash or any other untoward incident at the airport. The exercise will enable the management to assess the prompt response and coordination among all agencies in case of emergency situation at the airport.
People residing around the airport are cautioned not to panic as it would be a mock exercise involving participation of fire and rescue departments, ambulances, Rescue-1122 and Armed Forces. An aircraft B-777 will be used for the emergency exercise which involves boarding of mock passengers and casualties, manning of aircraft by crew (cockpit & cabin), while ASF will cordon off the aircraft and observer area. Triage area (assembly point for critically injured) will be established at the airport to classify/ sort the casualties according to condition of victims. Rescue and evacuation of passengers from the aircraft will begin and volunteers acting as injured passengers will be transported in ambulances and helicopters to the designated hospitals. On receiving the emergency call, the fire brigades will respond to the simulated scene of aircraft accident and extinguish the fire by following procedures as laid down in the Crisis & Emergency Response Plan.
Ambulances from Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Punjab Emergency Service Rescue-1122 and various hospitals will also participate in the exercise.
The emergency exercise will be conducted under the command of Chief Operating Officer (COO) / airport manager.
After the exercise, a panel of experts from airlines, hospitals, security agencies and PCAA will assemble and evaluate the response and overall conduct of exercise. The panel will also highlight the deficiencies in the mock exercise and suggest improvements for smooth real-time execution.