Brijesh Garodi
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (BG)
Mangalore, Apr 29: There was a panic of sorts at Mangalore International Airport here on Tuesday April 29, with thick black smoke billowing out and screeching sirens of fire tenders and ambulance tearing through the air. At first sight, it may have easily been mistaken for a catastrophe, but thankfully it wasn't anything of the sort.
It was nothing but a mock drill to test emergency services teams' preparedness to prevent or deal with disasters.
A full scale emergency mock exercise was carried out in the airport premises. It is mandatory to conduct such drills once every two years and was organized by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) along with CISF, airline operators, and other external agencies like city fire brigade, health department, hospitals, and police personnel.
A small model airplane was set alight and fire, ambulance, and other emergency services were informed. All of them rushed to the spot and carried out the rescue operations in a genuine and natural manner.
Explaining the mock drill afterwards to media persons, H S Varadarajan, chief of Karnataka fire and safety services department, Mangalore division, said, “We received the call that an air crash has occurred at Mangalore Airport and we rushed to the spot with the fire engines and staff. We carried out the mock drill to ensure thoroughness in fighting such a fire disaster. It is mandatory to carry out such operations once in two years.”
Addressing the media, J T Radhakrishna, airport director, Mangalore International Airport, said, “An aircraft model was used in this exercise. The situation imitated the crash of an aircraft with about 67 passengers just outside the airport premises. AAI fire brigade attended and city fire brigade joined in fire extinguishing and rescue services. The 'victims' were picked up by the hospital teams for treatment. CISF/ police personnel extended their service in putting up barricades and the like.”
“The airport fire brigade and other associated officers from AAI, CISF, airline operators, city fire brigade, hospital team with doctors, ambulances from Wenlock Hospital, KMC Hospital, Father Muller Hospital, Unity Hospital, Yenepoya Hospital, and Primary Health Care Centre, Bajpe as well as police personnel participated,” he said.
“Since the air crash of May 2010, it has become even more critical to carry out mock exercises for efficacy and familiarization in handling such aircraft accidents by involving all the relevant external agencies,” added Radhakrishna.
The exercise was carried out with the co-operation of Manjunath, nodal officer, district disaster management committee and district administration. T F Moosa, JGM (ATC), and Nandakumar Koolath, AGM (ATC), were the nodal officers from AAI. M Balachandran, JGM (ATC), M M Francis, JGM (Elect), K Anbarasu, JGM (CNS), A N Srinivasa, DGM (Civil), Ajay Indran, AGM (ATC), Dhananjay Shanbhag, AM (FS), and airline station managers, Sudhir Bhatt, Gladwin Mascarenhas, and Biddappa participated in the mock drill.