Emergency services put through paces in mock crash
(CNS): Fire crews, police, emergency medical personnel and airport staff were put through their paces last week to ensure that they are ready and able to cope in the event of a real emergency at Owen Roberts International airport. In an important training exercise the staff handled a mock plane crash at the end of the cricket pitch. Officials from the Cayman Islands Airport Authority which coordinated the exercise said it was to enable first responders and the airport to fine tune its preparedness and ability to deal with a real life emergency. In this scenario the imaginary aircraft from Testing Airlines crashed with 100 people aboard.
The full-scale emergency exercise was activated at 10.25am last Thursday and to facilitate the free movement of emergency personnel and equipment, as would be the case in a real event, traffic was diverted by Traffic Police from all access points to the Smith Road Cricket Grounds during those two hours.
CIAA’s Senior Manager of Safety Management Systems, Andrew McLaughlin said the exercise was a success, “The biennial exercisegives us the opportunity every two years to test our emergency response systems and brings into focus both the positives and negatives of our preparedness. During debriefs, we will get feedback from the responders which will help fine-tune our readiness and response systems,” he added.
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And in other news in New York today – two window washers were stuck 60 stories high – but they were rescued and they will not need to use the bathrom again this month…
Mass casualty incidents with different agencies. These are always good exercises to conduct to prepare for situations you don’t want to think about. For the poster above me, you’re right about notifying the public but in all seriousness the few minutes you were delayed didn’t really impact your day that much did it? GOD forbid you hold a MCI on a Sunday the Lord’s day. Just be glad they only do it every 2 years.
Its actually done every year, this is just the first time in a while it's been done somewhere as busy as around the airport.
I am all for practice practice and more practice as the old folks say practice makes perfect….My only suggestion and plea and wish is the next time PLEASE simulate a twin otter with 19 souls on board instead of such a big load..I swear it must had been a Double Decker Jumbo Jet you all was rescuing it took so LONG traffic was backed up everywhere…Do you really need so many roads BLOCKED ????? HOLY CRAP it was awful …People know what to do when ANY Emergency Vehicle is coming so I dont see the need for all the roads being closed sending people so far off course for nothing..Was not a happy camper that day…I also think you all should ADVERTISE WEEKS then DAYS before so people would know not to come town at all..Why not try it on a Sunday or a Public Holiday whenless traffic????
I would say that prepping for the larger scale disaster makes more sense than the smaller.
The whole point of doing these drills is to simulate a mass casualty incident… an accident or emergency situation that is far out of the norm; something that allows our emergency responders not only to plan for dire circumstances, but also to keep skills that otherwise go under-utilised as fresh knowledge.
You think that people know what to do when emergency vehicles are coming down the road… lights, sirens and all? Because I know I have been in many situations in Cayman where I've seen people not get out of the way for the ambulance, or refuse to give way at road signs; I've even seen people try and tail gate emergency vehicles through traffic lights – so as far as I'm concerned, any practice and any experience for both our emergency workers and local drivers is good.
Big deal that you had to wait a little bit longer in traffic for one morning; I bet you wont be complaining when the ambulance service saves your life, or the fire service pulls you out of some crazy situation one day.
Which 19 souls you would like to see on plane crash ?