ISLAMABAD, May 19: Airport Emergency Exercise ‘Rescue Air 2008’ was conducted at Islamabad International Airport on Monday to train Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) staff and to test reliability and functioning of their equipment.

The exercise was organised by the CAA at the Islamabad airport. The fire-fighting units of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) participated.

The ambulances of Rescue 1122, Edhi and Civil Aviation Authority evacuated the injured passengers.

During the exercise, the CAA officials displayed their rescue skills as they rescued passengers from a burning Air Bus 310 and exhibited their expertise.

The first phase of the exercise was extinguishing fire, where the CAA fire squads responded to the situation with the standard response time.

The rescue and evacuation process was the next phase of the exercise. The first injured passenger was shifted from the aircraft to the ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital within four minutes.

Medical and engineering departments and civil authorities along with the staff of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Emirates, Air Blue, British Airways and Saudi Airlines watched the exercise, which they termed highly successful.

Briefing the media about the exercise, Airport Manager Mohammad Ayaz Jadoon said the basic purpose of this exercise was to train, educate and develop coordination among different forces involved in tackling emergencies.

The exercise, he said, also aimed at ensuring that the CAA staff were fully prepared to tackle emergencies efficiently.

Mr Jadoon said ensuring the safety of the passengers and upgrading operational performance to international standards was the prime responsibility of the CAA, which, he added, was eventually responsible for disasters such as hijacking, bombing fire or other mishaps at the airport.

The exercise is conducted once in every two years at major airports as per policy of International Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO).

During the exercise fire-fighters and paramedics alongwith other organisations would develop better coordination to coup with emergency of this nature at the airport.

In this exercise safe rescue of the passengers from the aircraft during fire and provision of first aid to the injured was demonstrated.—APP