Macau Airport holds emergency exercise

Macau International Airport conducted a full-scale emergency exercise on Friday to simulate an aircraft accident in which the wings and engines of a plane hypothetically crashed into the runway upon landing.

According to Macau’s Civil Aviation Authority, the exercise was “concluded in a smooth manner and achieved its goal.”

The exercise started at 3 a.m. and lasted until 5 a.m. All participating entities – involving around 300 people – acted in accordance with the airport emergency plan, as well as their own contingency plans.

In the simulated accident, leaking fuel from the crash led to a big fire within the airport’s perimeter. The captain of the plane immediately declared the emergency and requested the evacuation of the 72 passengers on board, as well as two flight crewmembers and seven cabin crew.

When the Administration of Airports, Ltd. (ADA) was informed of the accident, they immediately activated the airport emergency operations center to take charge of the accident.

The Fire Services and the rescue team arrived on the scene to provide search and rescue services, the injured were sent to hospital for medical treatment in a timely manner, and a family reception area and a counseling center were respectively set up in the passenger terminal to provide enquiry and counseling services to the uninjured and the family members of the injured and the deceased.

About 43 people were injured or killed in the hypothetical scenario, according to simulation organizers.

With the aim of further enhancing the cooperation among the medical staff in dealing with serious injuries, the Health Bureau took the opportunity to test the coordination of pre-hospital rescue services. They took the simulation as a chance to train themselves for the handling of admitting passengers with different injuries to the appropriate locations for treatment.