The Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA) conducted a partial emergency exercise Wednesday afternoon (29 July 2015) on a grassy area alongside the runway at Owen Roberts International Airport. The partial exercise was conducted with no disruptions to normal airport activities.

The partial exercise was used to test actual response time by the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Service to the simulated aircraft accident site. It also tested the readiness of CIAA’s sections to respond to an aircraft accident on the airport, and assist with set-up of an Incident Command Post where emergency responders will effect command and control of the life-saving activities.

Besides Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, and RCIPS, other participants included representatives from CIAA Air Traffic Control, airport security, airport safety, airport operations, Hazard Management Cayman Islands, and airport customer and commercial services sections. There were also representatives from one of the major airlines as well as their ground handling company.

“Such exercises are vital to fine-tune emergency response management at the airport,” CIAA Chief Safety Officer, Mr. Andrew McLaughlin commented from the Airport Emergency Operations Centre, where participants could view in real time on CCTV the whole exercise on the airport runway.

The authority’s Airport Emergency Plan is being updated and over the next few months the CIAA and its emergency response partners will be conducting more partial exercises along with tabletop exercises to test suggested improvements to the plan.

Photo Captions: From GIS)

Some of the participants who attended the exercise on Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Real time action involving Fire Service trucks as seen on the large screen at the CIAA Incident Command Post