Airport drill is big success even though it sparked some morning rumors
Sandeep Singh Grewal
Contributor

It was an airport safety drill but it had people going to work on Thursday morning in a bit of a tizzy.
Obviously, it was so realistic that mobile owners passing the airport began calling in relatives and friends about an incident at the airport. The more fertile imaginations called our reporters with details of what had happened, something of them even giving us casualty figures and, in one case, informing the newspaper with great authority that the nose wheel of an aircraft had broken on landing impact.

But the fire broke out at Bahrain International Airport runway yesterday and fleets of ambulances and firebrigades which were seen rushing to the scene were all part of an emergency alert to keep the systems in practice for any future eventuality. Within a couple of minutes the airport’s rescue and fire services swung into action and the fire was extinguished. This was a joint exercise between the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health and the Civil Aviation Affairs.

The ‘passengers’ were immediately escorted by the airport services squad and were joined with the Civil Defense and Fire Services in a couple of minutes.

Passengers were brought out on stretchers by the personnel who constantly interacted to carry out the work quickly. The ‘travellers’ were then shifted to the tents that were rapidly set up by the fire personnel.

The choppers made their way through the blue sky and paramedical officers went into action by carefully placing the passengers on the stretchers. First-aid was provided to the travelers by the medical officials who were seen interacting and helping the persons to feel better. The mock drill featured about 100 officials from different departments and genders coming together to assist the travelers.

The drill which was held after two years was declared successful and fell well within the globally-accepted parameters of emergency procedures and initiatives. The progress and efficiency levels were monitored by the international authorities and the airlines company to test the security and safety of the airport.

As word spread that it was all an exercise, the fertile imaginations came in for their own landing and the mobile phones stopped ringing.