Calgary International Airport stages mock aircraft crash

Airline Industry Information, Oct 3, 2003

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2003 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Officials at Canada's Calgary International Airport staged a mock emergency response training exercise yesterday (2 October).

The scenario involved the crash of an aircraft on its way to Calgary from Ottawa which occurred shortly after 1000 local time at the airport's fire training facility. Airport and City of Calgary Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services and Calgary Police Service personnel responded

to the incident. Also responding were the STARS air ambulance service, several ambulance services from the Calgary region, Amateur Radio Emergency Services, Calgary Disaster Services and numerous other support agencies.

St. John Ambulance volunteer 'casualty simulation' team members with full make-up and other pre-scripted visible and hidden symptoms also took part in the drill to test the field responders' assessment of each patient's condition. In addition, airport staff dealt with volunteers pretending to be friends and family of the people on board the mock flight.

The exercise is said to have taken ten months of planning, and no regular flights were affected during the training.

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