A Full Scale Aerodrome Emergency Exercise: Practical Field Exercise

EXERCISE NOVA

An Integrated Multi-Agency Exercise

The exercise aim was to test a multi-agency response to ‘crash on airport’ at Brisbane airport in accordance with the Aerodrome Emergency Plan.

Janellis worked with stakeholders at Brisbane airport and emergency response agencies over several months to design, develop and facilitate the exercise. The exercise included a field exercise, the activation of the Brisbane Airport Incident Management Team and the Agency led response team operating in the Emergency Operations Centre and the Relative Reception Centre.

The exercise included 100 emergency response staff across 12 agencies and 34 emergency response vehicles, ‘moulaged’ role players (simulating injured aircraft crash victims), and incorporated inclement weather to add further challenge and realism.

The exercise provided a unique opportunity for emergency responders to practise command, control and coordination arrangements in a complex, multi-agency, cross-jurisdictional environment, working in partnership with a commercial critical infrastructure owner and aviation industry stakeholders.

At the conclusion of the exercise, one long-term operator commented “This is the best I’ve seen in 27 years”.

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Project Snapshot

Participating Agencies

100

Participants

Role players

Observers

1 full day

At Brisbane Airport

The Exercise Scenario

The exercise was based around a domestic 737-800 passenger aircraft from Melbourne with 120 passengers onboard, which experienced a mechanical problem on descent into Brisbane airport (flaps stuck in the Flaps 1 position), followed by fumes/smoke in the cabin and cockpit. The aircraft crew declared a ‘PAN’ when the mechanical (flaps) problem manifested (30 minutes from landing) and a ‘MAYDAY’ in response to the fumes/smoke (15 minutes from landing).

During a faster than normal approach to land (due to the flaps problem), the aircraft experienced a wind shear event when close to the runway, causing the aircraft to land heavily 20m short of the runway. As a result, the landing gear collapsed and the aircraft skidded along the runway on its engines before slewing off the runway and coming to rest near a key taxiway and within eyesight of airport domestic and international terminals.

In addition to the landing gear collapse, the heavy landing caused the fuselage to crack and seat tracks to buckle, resulting in flying debris within the cabin causing multiple passenger injuries.

The hot engines combined with fuel leaks from the aircraft, resulted in a fuselage fire shortly after the aircraft came to rest. This resulted in burns injuries to some passengers. Overall, the crash resulted in multiple passenger injuries and five fatalities.

Airside Inspection Point

The scenario tested emergency notification arrangements, including notifications to state-based emergency response agencies (Police, Fire and Ambulance) and other stakeholders including the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

On notification, emergency responders made their way to the airport’s Airside Inspection Point. Once assembled, emergency response vehicles were escorted in sequenced convoys to the simulated crash site to assist:

On-airport responders (Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting).
The Australian Federal Police.
Brisbane airport’s Airside Operations personnel.

This evolution required real-time liaison with Air Traffic Control, noting that normal airport flight operations continued during the exercise period.

Forward Command Post

Crash site

The (simulated) exercise crash site was on Brisbane airport’s decommissioned runway which enabled normal airport flying operations to continue. This became the site of the multi-agency Forward Command Post (FCP).

The crash site comprised a pre-positioned static aircraft, with smoke machines positioned to simulate the aircraft fire. Also pre-positioned around the aircraft were role players, many of whom were ‘moulaged’ simulating aircraft crash victims, together with Disaster Victim Identification mannequins which were used by Queensland Police Disaster Victim Identification squad for training purposes. Consequently, emergency responders were confronted with a relatively realistic scene on their arrival.

A staging area was established near the FCP where emergency response vehicles were positioned until called forward by the incident commander. Queensland Ambulance also established a triage area (Casualty Processing Area) nearby, and Queensland Health established a Secondary Assessment Centre.

An Australian Federal Police drone was also deployed at the FCP which provided real-time video feeds to the activated operations centres and to Exercise Control.

This simulated crash site presented a busy environment for emergency responders operating in and around the FCP.

Integrated Operations Centre

An Integrated Operations Centre was activated in response to the ‘full emergency’ notification (in accordance with the Aerodrome Emergency Plan).

This team comprised key decision-makers from the Brisbane Airport Corporation who liaised with the police-led Emergency Operations Centre and coordinated Brisbane Airport Corporation’s support to emergency responders.

This team also managed the impacts of the crash on airport operations including responding to a suspension of flying operations (including managing stranded passengers, reallocating parking gates for stranded aircraft etc), developing communication points and notifying airport stakeholders of the situation, and providing updates and advice to Brisbane Airport Corporation’s crisis management team (simulated by Exercise Control) who managed the consequential and strategic level impacts of the crash.

Emergency Operations Centre

Also activated on notification of the ‘full emergency (in accordance with the Aerodrome Emergency Plan) was the Emergency Operations Centre.

This team, led by police (initially the Australian Federal Police, and then the Queensland Police Service) comprised senior representatives from emergency response agencies and other key stakeholder groups including Queensland Health, the airline, Red Cross, Air Traffic Control, and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

The Emergency Operations Centre provided overarching coordination of the emergency response and provided support to emergency responders at the Forward Command Post.

A Brisbane Airport Corporation liaison officer was embedded within this team to provide a direct conduit into the Integrated Operations Centre.

Relative Reception Centre

The exercise also included the activation of a Relative Reception Centre to provide a focal point for people seeking information about passengers who were believed to be onboard the stricken aircraft.

This centre comprised representatives from the airline, Red Cross, Queensland Police Service and Brisbane Airport Corporation. The team greeted and provided support to concerned relatives, and used the Red Cross ‘register, find, unite’ process and system, together with details from the aircraft manifest, to provide information to passenger relatives.

Role players pretending to be relatives of passengers presented to the Relative Reception Centre, as did a role-playing member from the media who was keen to speak with distressed relatives.

Exercise Nerve Centre

The exercise was coordinated by a Janellis-led ‘Exercise Control’; a group comprising a cross-section of participating agency representatives. Exercise Control staff were co-located in a room in the terminal building and were supported by ‘in field’ (Janellis) exercise control personnel located at each exercise site who monitored activities and reported back to the co-located group.

Exercise Control delivered pre-planned ‘injects’ to exercise participants (scripts delivered predominantly by telephone) based on the exercise scenario and in accordance with a ‘Master Schedule of Events’, to provide the exercise with direction and momentum. Additional injects were devised and delivered during the exercise, as required, in response to emerging issues.

Exercise Control members simulated all ‘non-participating’ (i.e. ‘notional’) entities including response agency control centres, members of the public, members of the media, government agencies, aviation stakeholders, and Brisbane Airport Corporation’s crisis management team.

Exercise Control also responded to participant queries and requests for information, as required, to provide added realism.