THE Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on Wednesday staged a full-scale emergency exercise as part of its disaster preparedness simulation activity.

In accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards, the CJIA is expected to conduct an Airport Emergency Full-Scale exercise every two years.
The last full-scale emergency exercise was conducted on November 1, 2019.

The exercise commenced on Wednesday at 14:00hrs and concluded at 16:00hrs. It saw soldiers from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) simulating a high-stakes operation whereby ranks became ill while on an aircraft and were forced to make an emergency landing at the CJIA.

The operation saw CJIA Port Health staff members quickly fly into action as they raced to safely remove the ailing passengers from the aircraft. Notably, all medical personnel were seen wearing Hazmat suits, to protect personnel from potentially contracting any diseases.

This simulation reflected the real-life issue of the COVID-19 and as such, systems were put in place to ensure that all persons dealing with passengers were protected.

During the exercise, the two Guyana Fire Service fire tenders with water cannons arrived at the landing point within minutes, prepared to extinguish any potential blaze within the aircraft.

CJIA Director of Operations, Andre Kelson, called the exercise a “fact-finding mission,” noting that the purpose of the exercise was not to give the team a pass or fail grade but to identify areas of weakness in the response to disasters.

He noted that it is important to identify those areas of weakness to improve on the response and effectiveness to any real disaster or accident.
“We don’t know exactly what will happen, we can stage, we can draw a number of things to make it look as though we are prepared, but this afternoon, we recognised with the assistance of port health, the army, and the police that we are pretty compliant with what our expectations are.

However, we did learn here and we are not short of what we learned. There were some little hiccups, but it’s nothing that you can’t correct and we intend to correct that,” said Kelson.

He noted that the airport is equipped with an adequate number of port health staff who could spring into action should the need arise, but assured in the eventuality that there is a need for additional medical support, the CJIA has contingency plans in place to quickly have those persons transported to the airport.

Kelson further noted that in terms of prioritised firefighting resources, the airport has a high category eight, low category nine priority rate, meaning that the airport has been marked as a high-priority area for fire prevention. He also explained that the tenders at the airport can cater to 767-type aircraft should the need arise.

According to a press release from the CJIA, CEO Ramesh Ghir disclosed that the exercise is in keeping with the standards and recommended practices outlined by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, with the objective being “to test our response capabilities in the event of any medical emergency.”

He further noted that with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations of the airport, preparedness is paramount in ensuring efficiency and safety for passengers, stakeholders and employees of the airport.

Among the agencies that participated in Wednesday’s exercise were CJIA Port Health, the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Fire Service, the Airport Aviation Security Department, the Special Constabulary, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.