RAWALPINDI, Sept 21: Pre-planned Airport Emergency Exercises-2002 were held at the Islamabad International Airport here on Saturday to evaluate the state of preparedness and coordination of all agencies regarding airport accident plan.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had arranged a Boeing-737 aircraft from Pakistan International Airlines for the exercises and prepared a fire pit specially for this exercise. About 1,200 litres of Jet-1 fuel was consumed to lit the fire.

The CAA and PAF fire tenders reached the site of the exercises within 1.5 minutes of declaration of emergency and took another 40 seconds to extinguished the fire.

Rescue operation on the Boeing-737 was then started. About 89 dummy passengers and cabin crew were evacuated. The number of dummy injured and dead were 53. Seriously injured were taken to the hospitals, while the minor injury cases were given first aid on the spot.

The first casualty was evacuated within two minutes of extinguishing the fire. Operations Control Centre, meant for dealing with the emergencies, was also activated. Airport Manager Farooq Malik, while talking to this reporter, said the exercises were an annual feature at all the airports across the country. The exercises are fairly expensive.

The participants of the exercises later evaluated the operation and stressed on further strengthening coordination between different sections.