The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority’s (UCAA) Fire Fighting and rescue services personnel put down the “ensuing fire” as medics from various hospitals were summoned and they promptly responded.
Several ambulances and medical staff went to the scene and “rescued” the victims. The “critically injured” were rushed to hospitals in Entebbe and Kampala.
Such, was the simulation emergency exercise that assumed a certain flight was cleared to land at Entebbe International Airport’s runway 12/30, but on touch down, the aircraft veered off the runway and caught fire.
It was presumed that “30 people lost their lives” and “40 of the survivors were critically injured”, which sparked off an emergency situation involving airport fire-fighters and other rescue agencies that were called in to save lives.
A full scale emergency exercise to test for Entebbe International Airport’s readiness in case of an emergency involving a passenger aircraft “veering off the runway and catching fire” was held at Entebbe International Airport on Friday, 4th November.
After the exercise, Mr. Fred Bamwesigye, the UCAA director general said the exercise is a mandatory requirement for international Airports of countries that are contracting member States of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Mr. Bamwesigye noted that the Friday exercise was conducted successfully, lauding all stakeholders who were involved.
Among those were medics from various hospitals, Uganda Red Cross Society, St. John’s ambulance, Uganda Peoples Defense Air force (UPDAF), Uganda Police Airwing, Aviation Police, national security agencies, representatives from the various airlines, ground handling agents, volunteers who acted as injured passengers among others.
Mr. Vianney Lugya the UCAA spokesperson said, no passenger missed his/her flight because they had passed on alerts for the exercise earlier. “We always alert our airport users to avoid inconveniences as well as scaring them,” he added.
The last full scale emergency exercise was held in 2019, which simulated an aircraft hijack and hostage taking situation, before a partial exercise was conducted in 2020.
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