Emergency responders doing CPR on a mock victim during the emergency drill at PJIA on Wednesday morning.
AIRPORT–It was an eventful Wednesday morning at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) as PJIA management in conjunction with government’s Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) conducted a live emergency drill exercise.
The large-scale exercise, which began at 9:06am, was executed in the proximity of threshold 10 on the airport’s runway. The live emergency exercise is a standard requirement at airports sanctioned by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The drill involved 125 passengers and seven crew members onboard a fictitious Boeing 737 aircraft. In the mock scenario, the left main landing gear’s tyres blew out on the aircraft’s take-off roll, causing the undercarriage to hit the runway’s surface. The impact caused a tear in the wing structure, rupturing a fuel tank.
Due to the aircraft’s velocity and the heavy friction against the asphalt, the leaked fuel sprayed into the engine’s exhaust and ignited spontaneously. The impact had a severe effect on the fuselage, causing the main exit doors to be jammed shut as the left side of the aircraft was fully engulfed in flames.
The mock drill involved the Rescue and Firefighting (RFF) team, Ambulance and St. Maarten Fire Department, and the St. Maarten Police Force KPSM.
The emergency exercise ended at approximately 9:55am.
“The exercise was successful and was followed by a debriefing after the drill exercise. All evaluators are required to submit their reports within a two-week timeframe and then the airport emergency preparedness committee will meet to review said reports and propose improvements where needed,” said RFF Chief Fire Prevention Officer Gerald Baptiste in a requested statement.
The exercise served to evaluate the responses of various emergency agencies’ contingency plans and procedures should an aircraft accident occur at or in the vicinity of the airport, said PJIA on Wednesday evening. The drill exercise also served to test the effectiveness of the procedures as stipulated in PJIA’s Emergency Management Manual and other related contingency plans, according to a press release.
The requirements of the St. Maarten Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) were also taken into consideration, as evaluators tested the competences of all emergency providers, said PJIA.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/92114-emergency-drill-staged-at-pjia
View comments
Hide comments