Mock air crash exercise at IGI airport

New Delhi, Apr 23 (UNI) A day after security scare during the landing of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's aircraft here, a mock air crash exercise was carried out at the Indira Gandhi International airport.

The drill was carried to observe the coordination of activities at the crash site and communications amongst the various participating organisations and agencies and test the preparedness and training of all the staffs at Delhi Airport.

The exercise, organised by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) which runs the IGI airport, was held as a drill for handling procedures for aircraft crash within the airport.

DIAL said the exercise also helped practice the information management procedures, operating procedures of the Command Centre (CC), Crisis Management Centre (CMC), Emergency Response and Interaction Centre (ERIC), the Emergency Coordination Centre (ECC), Survivors Reception Centre (SRC), the Friends and Relatives Reception Centre (FRRC) and the Reunion Area (RA).

The full scale mock aircraft crash exercise announcement was made by the Air Traffic Control(ATC) to check on the efficiency and response time of various departments, agencies and concessionaires at airport including Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), medical units, ambulance, hospitals, city fire service, and Airlines.

The mock exercise was initiated at 1310 hrs as per Airport Emergency Plan of IGI Airport and as per International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines. This process also checks the efficiency of the contingency plans in the dynamic airport environment besides creating awareness and training officials at the Airport.

For the mock exercise, a real Boeing 737- 800 aircraft, operated by Universal Airlines(UV 115) (name changed), with 92 passengers and 8 crew-members on board, inbound from City Atlantis approached Indira Gandhi International Airport to land on Runway 28. When the aircraft touched down on the runway, it crash-landed at the beginning of the Runway at 1406 hrs.

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