Crews hone skills in simulated emergency
Emergency services and Albury Airport staff have tested their skills in a major training exercise at the Albury Airport.
The exercise tested the Albury Airport Emergency Plan, as required by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
Emergency and support workers were faced with a simulated scenario in which an in-bound passenger aircraft had a catastrophic wing failure and crashed to the ground adjacent to the runway.
The aircraft fuselage was represented by buses and volunteers represented the passengers.
AlburyCity Councillor Alice Glachan said the exercise helped airport staff and emergency services to fine tune their knowledge should they ever need it in a real-life airport emergency.
“Safety is always the number one priority in aviation and we have an excellent record in that field but at the same time, it pays to ensure we are as prepared as we possibly can be in the unlikely event that we do have to respond to a major incident at the airport,” she said.
“By testing our airport emergency plan in conjunction with our emergency services we can learn valuable lessons and fine-tune skills that hopefully won’t ever be needed.”
All of the city’s emergency agencies were invited to take part.
The exercise had no impact on airport operations and flights continued to arrive and depart as scheduled.
A debriefing will be held after the exercise to assess its efficiency.