The Cayman Islands Airports Authority will be conducting a full-scale aircraft emergency exercise at the Owen Roberts International Airport on Thursday, 30 Sept., which, this time, will take into account COVID risks, organisers said.
For the first time in this type of exercise, Travel Cayman will be involved to ensure the procedures used by the emergency responders “take into consideration COVID-19 precautions and offer the best use of PPE to protect them while they perform life-saving techniques”, a statement from the CIAA noted.
During the exercise, volunteers will play the role of “victims” of the crash or first aiders.
“These types of exercises are necessary not only to fulfill a regulatory requirement but also, considering the interruption of aviation business the pandemic has caused, to give us a chance to test our emergency equipment and the skills of our emergency responders,” CIAA Chief Management Officer Andrew McLaughlin said in the statement.
“Additionally, this exercise will give the Cayman Islands Coast Guard, as well as the CI Regiment, an opportunity to show off their training in emergency response. The addition of these two entities is expected to greatly enhance our ability to deal with all type of emergencies in the future,” he added.
The exercise will be monitored by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands as well as by appointed experts from each emergency response organisation. The CIAA said there will also be “a security element” added to the scenario, “which will further stretch resources and test coordination of services”.
The CIAA said there will be a short interruption of traffic on the roads surrounding the airport Thursday and asked members of the public for their cooperation while the emergency services test their response times to the airport. Early morning traffic will not be impacted, and any disturbance to the public will be kept to a minimum, it said.
To comply with international standards, the CIAA stages a full-scale emergency exercise at both the Owen Roberts International Airport and the Charles Kirkconnell International Airport every two years in order to test the ability of airport staff and emergency response agencies “to work together to form an organised response to save lives and limit damage to property”, the CIAA said.
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