Emergency crews responded to a fiery crash landing at the Kelowna Airport today, and the response was unreal. So was the crash. It was a mock disaster aimed at giving everyone involved a chance to practice their response.
The main purpose of the event is to test the airport's emergency plan. It happens every three years. But it involved more than 20 different agencies. Every effort is made to create a realistic scenario. The idea is to practice major incident skills and find improvements and revisions to the agencies’ current response plans.
"Under the Transport Canada regulations on emergency planning, we are required to stage a major disaster exercise every three years," said Airport Director Sam Samaddar. "
It's a highly useful event for Kelowna General Hospital, so they can fine-tune their readiness for the real thing. "It's a wonderful opportunity for Interior Health to participate with our partners," said Heather Wong who heads up trauma services at Interior Health. "It allows us to test our teams and test our processes at Kelowna General Hospital."
The event was coordinated by former Kelowna Fire Chief Jeff Carlisle. "It just gives you confidence when you train as close to realism as you can and that's what we're trying to achieve today," said Carlisle.
The mock disaster also included airport officials and the airline dealing with loved-ones and greeters at the airport in this kind of scenario. There was a lot more going on, than what was seen on the tarmac.
"The title of the exercise is 'Ex-Integrate', said Samaddar, "which is 'being one' and that's what we're looking for here."
