Mysore/Mysuru: A mock drill was conducted at the Mysore Airport at Mandakalli to test the emergency response protocol yesterday and over 80 personnel from different agencies participated in the drill.
According to Airport authorities, the drill was a full-scale emergency exercise after the COVID-19 pandemic to deal with the aircraft and record the response time of the crew. Such exercises are mandatory and happen regularly to revise the protocol, they said.
The exercise was carried out during the no-aircraft movement time from 11.20 am and was completed in 35 minutes to ensure that no disruption occurred to the normal operation of the Airport.
A dummy aircraft that was designed specifically for the purpose, was set on fire to symbolise a disaster and two passengers were ‘declared dead’. The fire was doused within two minutes while the injured were ‘shifted’ to a hospital for ‘treatment’, which helped minimise the fatalities. All the procedures, including minute details were followed as per the disaster management template and standard operating procedure. “It took just two minutes to respond in the shortest time. This continued effort is to remind and ensure all agencies and team members are sensitised about their role in times of emergency,” said a statement from the Airport.
The aircraft was set on fire at an open area far from the runway and information was passed on to the fire and rescue service office located close to the runway. A real-time emergency situation was enacted during the drill. The personnel were told that a passenger aircraft had an emergency landing and has caught fire.
Officers said that the mock drill was conducted to improve preparedness of airport crash tenders and fire-fighting personnel to respond to emergencies. The drill assessed the speed of vehicles, its capability to discharge fire retardants and promptness of the fire and rescue service personnel.
The participating teams included Fire and Emergency Services Personnel, Karnataka Industrial Security Force, State Police, medical and paramedical staff drawn from Apollo and JSS hospitals.
Wait until this Airport expansion is complete, and it starts to receive medium haul jetliners like the A320 and Boeing 737. Narendra Modi during his stop mover in the UAE a few months ago, promised the Keralite Businessmen resident there-most of them in reality are gold smugglers currently to Kerala run very successful Hawala channel money laundering operations in Kerala and recently expanding to Mysore too. They will frequently use this UAE-Mysore non-stop flight when in operation, and the huge traffic they generate, and the frequent need for these flights mean that there are opportunities for serious accidents at the Mysore airport then.
This kind of flimsy drill will be of no use.