YLW to test its security threat, aircraft incident preparedness

If you notice smoke and a heavy presence of emergency vehicles at Kelowna International Airport (YLW) this Thursday, don’t be alarmed.

An emergency exercise will be staged at the airport to ensure its staff is prepared in the event of a security threat or unexpected aircraft incident.

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“More than 20 agencies will be involved in this mock emergency, with the intent of practicing major incident skills and finding improvements and revisions to the agencies’ current response plans,” YLW spokesperson Jasmine Patrick said in a news release.

The exercise is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and end at 1 p.m.

In that time, there will be activity including controlled smoke and flames as well as several emergency response vehicles in action, on the east side of the air field.

Airport staff said the emergency exercises, which take place every four years to test the YLW’s emergency plan, won’t affect local traffic or flights.