The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) yesterday ( Thursday, December 5) held a mock emergency simulation exercise at the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, to access real life emergency preparedness.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise is an operational requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for aerodromes.
It involved the creation of a scenario where an aircraft skidded off the runway while there was a fuel leakage which caused a fire.
Mr. Olatokunbo Arewa, the Regional General Manager, South-West/Airport Manager, MMA, said that the exercise is expected to be staged every two years to show that the airport is ready to attend to emergencies.
“With today’s exercise, the authority will be able to access the shortfalls and know areas that need improvement.
“Though we do not pray for any emergency, but we need to prepare and get ready whenever it occurs in the airport.
“So, this kind of exercise, we need to be doing it at least once in two years and that is what we have just done today. You have seen how ready we are.
“Our response team got to the scene right on time to really discharge their duty to ensure that all souls on board are rescued and save as much as possible the equipment on ground from being bombed,” he told aviation correspondents covering the exercise.
Speaking on the scenario of the simulator, Arewa said that a Boeing 737 landing on Runway 18L, 39 Right of the runway, skidded to the compass wing and suffered fuel leakage with 80 passengers and five crew members.
“We noticed that at the emergency operation center, some of the heads of agencies did not turn up on time.
“That is the decision-making room where we command and direct how the exercise will go to respond on time.
“Some of them did not respond at all, while some came late. We are going to address that.
“Specifically, one of the agencies that was supposed to come and inspect the incident and take notes to investigate what actually happened, did not respond on time.
“So, we have noted all these. At our debriefing, we are going to address this, so that when we have real emergency, this does not happen,” he said.
Arewa said that apart from the fact that some of the officials did not respond on time, three fire tenders were on ground and responded within the stipulated time and the firemen were all well-kitted to put out the fire.
In terms of collaboration, he said that frontline responders including LASEMA, NEMA, Lagos State Fire Rescue Service, NSCDC, AVSEC, NCAA and NSIB among other agencies were present.
On handling family members of the victims, the airport manage said that the scenario of family members trying to push their way into the terminal was not out of place.
He said that the airport security personnel were able to stop them from gaining access, adding that such exercise would be replicated in another airport within the South-West region shortly.
Also speaking, Dr. Okechukwu Ofeogbu, the Head of Department, Medical Team, MMA, said that during events such as this, responders triage victims to ascertain critical and non-critical cases.
“There is something we call triaging victims during emergency cases, where we use some labels to identify critically ill victims, that is a red label; green for people that do not need urgent intervention,” he disclosed.
“Then, we also have the yellow that needs immediate intervention and we have the black for people that are actually deceased.
“So, every member of the medical team is currently trained with the basic life support as well as with advanced cardiovascular life support programmes.”
Speaking further, Ofeogbu said that at the scene, there would be an on-site command officer, medical command officer, who would take instructions from the Emergency Operations Centre.
Speaking on the capacity of the Resuscitation Centre, he said that the centre is expandable and that the agency is in collaboration with various medical centres to attend to emergencies.
He added that 25 members of personnel were deployed to the accident scene during the simulation.
Also, Mrs. Dolapo Fakunle, Deputy General Manager/Station Commander, Murtala Muhammed International Airport Aerodromes Rescue and Purification Services, described the response of her men as topnotch.
She said that in less than two minutes, the fire tenders were at the scene and in another three minutes, the fire had been contained and rescue commenced immediately.
“With the set of firefighting vehicles we have on ground now, we are more than ready. I am bold to say that we have good and serviceable fire vehicles on ground,” she said.
Air Peace was a partner in the exercise.
At about 10.55 a.m., an emergency alarm was sent to the MMA Aerodrome Rescue and two fire tenders moved to the scene, with two ambulances but at about 11.03 a.m., more ambulances were called to the scene.
At 11.08 a.m. more hands were needed at the scene. At 11.10 a.m., the NSCDC ambulance joined the rescue team, at 11.17 a.m, the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services arrived.
