National News

MULTAN, (APP): The Pakistan Civil Aviation
Authority (PCAA) conducted a full scale Airport Emergency
Exercise 2016 at the Multan International Airport on Saturday
to train its staff and to test reliability and functioning of their equipment.
The fire-fighting units of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
and Rescue 1122 participated while ambulances of the Nishtar
Hospital, CMH, Edhi, Civil Aviation, Railway hospital, health
department and Civil Defense evacuated the injured.
During the exercise, the CAA officials displayed their rescue
skills as they rescued passengers from a supposedly skidded of
aircraft during landing and exhibited their expertise.
The first phase of the exercise was extinguishing fire
where the CAA and Rescue 1122 fire squads responded to the
situation with the standard response time of two-and-a-half minutes.
The rescue and evacuation process was the next phase of the exercise.
The first injured passenger was shifted from the aircraft to the
ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital within four minutes.
DCO Nadar Chatta, officials from PAF and civil authorities
along with the staff of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)
watched the exercise.
Talking to APP, Airport Manager Raja Azhar Mahmood said the
basic purpose of this exercise was to train, educate and develop coordination among different stakeholders involved in
tackling emergencies.
The exercise, he said, also aimed at ensuring that the CAA
staff were fully prepared to tackle emergencies efficiently.
Azhar said ensuring safety of passengers and upgrading
operational performance to international standards was the prime responsibility of the CAA.
He said response of firefighters was very quick and
every section of the CAA had defined role to play in case
of any eventuality.
The exercise was conducted once in every two years at
major airports as per policy of International Civil
Aviation Organisation (ICAO), he stated.