09 November 2011
An emergency exercise will be staged at Jersey Airport on Saturday 12 November 2011.
The exercise will focus on operational response and co-ordination in the event of a full scale emergency and will involve airport authorities working alongside the Island’s principal emergency services, including the States of Jersey Police; the Ambulance Service; Fire and Rescue and the Honorary Police.
A number of volunteers will take part in the exercise, which will involve a pseudo incident on the airfield that will require a response from the emergency services. In order to make the exercise as realistic as possible for everyone taking part, exact details of the scenario are not being disclosed.
The runway and airport terminal buildings will close at 7pm and the exercise will be staged shortly afterwards. Although members of the public will not be able to view the incident, the Airport Emergency Planning Group is keen to reassure residents that it is purely an exercise, confined to the parameters of the airfield. No roads within the vicinity of the airport will be closed, although emergency services vehicles will need to access the airport from St Helier and motorists are asked to give priority to these vehicles as they would do in a real life scenario.
Jersey Airport’s Chief Fire Officer, Andy Munns, heads up the Airport Emergency Planning Group. He said "By undertaking such an exercise, as the airport is obliged to do every 2 years, it will enable all those involved to be better equipped to manage and react in the event of a real-life incident of this scale. The safety of our passengers and crew is of the utmost importance and as such, this exercise will help to maintain and where necessary, improve upon the procedures we currently have in place. I am grateful to our colleagues in the other emergency services for agreeing to participate as their involvement would be vital in a real life major incident.’
gov.je