Airport Emergency Exercise 'Rescue Air 2008' was conducted at Islamabad International Airport on Monday to train Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) staff and to test reliability and functioning of their equipment. The exercise was organised by the CAA at the Islamabad Airport. The fire fighting units of Civil Aviation Authority and PAF participated.
The ambulances of Rescue 1122, Edhi and CAA evacuated the injured passengers. During the exercise, CAA officials displayed their rescue skills as they rescued passengers from a burning AirBus 310 and exhibited their expertise.
The first phase of the exercise was extinguishing fire, where CAA fire squads responded to the situation with the standard response time. The rescue and evacuation process was the next phase of the exercise. The first injured passenger was shifted from the aircraft to the ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital within four minutes.
Medical and engineering departments and civil authorities along with the staff of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Emirates, Air Blue, British Airways and Saudi Airline watched the exercise, which they termed as highly successful.
Briefing the media about salient features and purpose of the exercise, Airport Manager Muhammad Ayaz Jadoon said the basic purpose of this exercise was to train, educate and develop coordination among the different forces involved in tackling emergencies.
The exercise, he said, also aimed at ensuring that the CAA staffs were fully prepared to tackle emergencies efficiently. He said that ensuring the safety of tested rescue plans to tackle emergencies efficient.