A mock emergency took place at Kelowna International Airport on Thursday morning.
The mock plane crash was held to test the airport’s emergency preparedness. Approximately 75 people took part in the exercise, which saw passengers exit an old plane, pretending to have various injuries.
A small fire that emitted clouds of black smoke was also lit close to the plane.
Firefighters doused the smoky blaze, while the passengers, pretending to be injured, were removed from the mock crash site and cared for.
“We’re testing our emergency response plan,” said YLW director Sam Samaddar. “By law, as airports go, we’re required to do a major disaster exercise every three years.
“In this particular plan, we have a crash on airport. The aircraft departed Kelowna, hit some birds, returned and had some problems with its engines and crashed at the airport. We’re simulating a crash on airport.”
Samaddar said there were 20-plus agencies involved in the training exercise, from firefighters to police to NAV Canada and Kelowna General Hospital.
“We started this a year ago. We actually did a table-top exercise in November of last year,” said Samaddar. “We went to all the agencies and said, ‘what is it about your plan you want to test?’
“And we built that into the exercise scenario. Really, for me, what this is all about is the communications that goes on between an agency in terms of testing their plan, but also inter-agencies in terms of ensuring that we have the best response available in a situation like this.”
RCMP Const. Lesley Smith said, “it’s a great opportunity for all of us to work with our partners and the different resources that are available should a critical incident like a plane crash occur.
“Not only are we learning our roles, as resources here on the site, but also who’s going to take charge and where people are going to go.”
Smith said the RCMP’s role is to preserve evidence, provide public safety, and “sadly, if there is a tragic outcome, we’ll be working with the BC Coroners Service.
“Where those muster places would be, how that would work when identifying victims and locating their families — everything is worked on today so that if there is a critical incident such as a plane crash, that we are ready to work with our partners.”
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