GERALD’S, Montserrat, November 28th, 2012 – The Governor’s Office and the John A. Osborne Airport management coordinated a full emergency exercise on Wednesday morning to test the airport’s and relevant agencies’ readiness to respond effectively to aviation emergencies.
Observing the exercise were Bruce Wilks, Peter Patrickson, and Tom Llewelyn from Air Safety Support International (ASSI) and Tom Regan from the Governor’s Office.
The scenario involved a crash of a BN2 Islander arriving from Anguilla with five souls on board and carrying dangerous goods.
While the actual exercise began at 10:18 am and ended at 10:38, with a debrief and critique session, the entire event covered a 2 hour period. At present, there is a statutory requirement to have a full scale emergency exercise every 2 years with the conducting of table top exercises during the intervening period.
ASSI officials said the response time from the fire service was well within acceptable time frames and that the team was very methodical in assessing the situation.
Wilks said the exercise allowed everyone to see what worked and where the gaps were. Communication challenges between the various agencies, was a highlighted concern and the Airport Manager Denzil Jones said this will be looked at immediately to avoid similar issues in a real emergency.
The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at the Disaster Management Coordination Agency (DMCA) was activated, while hospital, police and all relevant agencies were put on alert for the exercise.
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Montserrat News