Ogle Airport deals with hangar explosion

Feb 28, 2015 News

– As part of simulated exercise
The Ogle International Airport was a hive of activity yesterday as a full scale

Ogle International Airport was abuzz as an emergency simulation was conducted yesterday.

emergency exercise was conducted in response to a simulated hangar explosion.
Much of the activity was focused on the air hangar as about 75 first responders attached to the airport swooped into action to deal with the faux emergency.
According to Kit Nascimento, Public Relations Consultant to the airport, the first responders were drawn from all sectors of the airport. He further said they were all continuously trained to be ready for an emergency situation. Support was also lent by other agencies such as the Guyana Fire Service and the Guyana Red Cross Society.
The simulation exercise started about 2:00pm and lasted more than an hour.
Personnel tried to maintain as much reality as possible and prohibited reporters from getting too close to the scene of the “accident”. Furthermore, persons were not allowed into the Ogle Airport compound; in some cases, passengers from real-life flights were forced to heave their luggage from the airport to vehicles waiting outside.
Some persons gathered outside in concern as the sounds of ambulance sirens wailed, unaware of the ongoing exercise.

Ambulances were on site yesterday to transport victims to emergency centres as the Ogle International Airport simulated an emergency yesterday.

Marisa James, an Aviation Security Officer with the airport, was responsible for briefing media operatives and told reporters that the cause of the “emergency” was a suspected bomb placement in the southernmost hangar. At a final briefing, James said there had been about 50 persons on the aircraft and 30 of these passengers had died. The deaths included at least one child, she said.
Those who simply suffered injuries were swiftly transported to a triage area by a combination of makeshift stretchers and vehicles.
Furthermore, James said there had also been a suspected Ebola case. This passenger was transferred to a containment area within the airport to be tested for the deadly disease, James said.
Special attention was paid to the maintenance of protocol, time consumption and the handling of victims. James explained that the victims were being treated as if the situation was a real. This included marking them with specific colours to indicate the severity of their injuries.
Communication was also a key component and officials could be heard keeping in constant contact via radio handsets.
The execution of emergency exercises is a requirement set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in their standards and regulations. All airports are required to regularly conduct exercises to test emergency plans, procedures, equipment, communications and the response of key personnel. Similar emergency exercises have been conducted at the Ogle airport as well as the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.