Full scale emergency readiness testing takes place at Cape Town International Airport

Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) will be activating its full-scale Aerodrome Emergency exercise at 18:00 today.
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The exercise which is held every second year, is mandated by South African Aviation legislation as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Its intent is to test the readiness of the airport in the event of a disaster.

The exercise includes various role-players such as the South African Police Services the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre and Fire and Rescue Service, the South African National Defence Force, Metro Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Traffic police amongst others.

“This is a full-scale emergency exercise designed to thoroughly test emergency procedures and responses. It includes all the participants who would be called upon in the event of a major incident at the airport,” says Deidre Davids, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs: Cape Town International Airport.

The main objective of this exercise is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Aerodrome Emergency Management Plan and other key role players. It will also help to investigate avenues to improve emergency systems when dealing with major incidents. The exercise will pay close attention to establishing better communication flow between participants as well as testing command and control procedures.

This exercise demonstrates the commitment by the City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre, airlines, government departments and other concerned parties in maintaining a high level of contingency preparedness and safety. Key to the exercise is the opportunity to pro-actively identify challenges in airport emergency planning and to enhance the emergency preparedness and responses of all participating agencies,’ said the City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre spokesperson, Charlotte Powell. 

This year’s emergency exercise is a bit different as it has a partial exercise with limited response which will take place earlier during the day and thereafter the full-scale exercise with all respondents.  The scenario of this exercise includes a hostage situation on the airside. “Emergency response preparedness is an important aspect of our work at the airport. Because an emergency response requires co-operation between various role players, it is critical that we jointly test and rehearse our procedures on a regular basis” continued Davids.