Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 11 (PTI) A full scale aerodrome emergency exercise, called Phoenix 2023, was carried out at the international airport here on Wednesday, the aerodrome management said.

The FSAEE, which is held every two years, was carried out under the aegis of the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and in accordance with the guidelines issued by the aviation regulator (DGCA) and the recommendations of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport Ltd (TIAL) said.

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The two-hour long exercise was carried out during the scheduled runway maintenance closure or NOTAM (Notice for Airman) period between 2 pm and 4 pm so that no flights were affected, it said.

The drill was the culmination of 180 days long preparations and revolved around a pre-defined specific scenario that the airport had planned, TIAL said in a statement.

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As part of the exercise, an aircraft model was set on fire to assess the response of the fire-fighting personnel and system in place at the airport, according to visuals of the drill shared by TIAL.

In addition to that, mock drills of passenger evacuations, medical assistance close to the airstrip, transportation of patients from the tarmac to the emergency medical centre at the airport, etc, were all carried out as part of the exercise, it said.

"The exercise involved collaborative actions by the various stakeholders who are part of the airport operations and they responded as per the roles and responsibilities assigned to them," TIAL said.

Experts from Kerala Police, Fire Force and hospitals actively participated in the exercise, it added.

The TIAL said that the objective of the drill was to strengthen and validate the efficiency and efficacy of the airport operator and stakeholders in dealing with an actual emergency.

"The exercise was a testimony of the role of airlines and evaluated whether procedures followed by the stakeholders were benchmarked to industry standards to handle an emergency systematically," it said.

The airport authority said that domain experts from DDMA and the aviation sector were present as observers and recorded the reaction and response of the various stakeholders to the emergency scenarios created for the drill.

"The observers appreciated the airport for its initiative to plan different emergency scenarios for the exercise which will give stakeholders the confidence to tackle any situation. These statutory drills are in line with the continuous efforts by the airport to deal with emergency situations on a real time basis," TIAL said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)