Norman Manley Airport conducts $multimillion crash simulation exercise
AUTHORITIES AT the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) are now reviewing the findings of a multimillion-dollar simulation exercise of an aircraft crashing into the Kingston Harbour, which was conducted yesterday.
The exercise, the first of its kind locally, was a collaboration of several entities, including NMIA response teams, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Jamaica Defence Force, the Ministry of Health, the Jamaica Fire Brigade, and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, among others.
According to chief operations officer Dale Davis, the exercise was in keeping with international standards, which mandate a similar exercise at major airports at least every two years.
“In an operational environment like ours, the aviation community is key to standardising the kind of response that would be made to an incident involving an aircraft, which could be very harmful to the reputation of the airport, and the State is responsible for management,” he said.
“In order to ensure that the response capability is up to international expectations, there are some minimum standards that we must have in the event of an emergency,” Davis continued, noting that the simulation included passengers being rescued at sea, the application of first-aid services, and transportation of victims to nearby hospitals.
The exercise, which commenced at about 8 a.m. and went on long after 11 a.m., also evaluated the response to environmental hazards such as oil-spills at sea.
The exercise featured helicopters, ambulances, airport firetrucks, and marine police service vehicles.
More than 100 volunteers participated in the exercise as actors who had to be rescued and their injuries treated by the various doctors and nurses on site. Attention was paid to response times, the availability of resources, and communication, among the possible scenarios.