Airports witness countless crashes, fire outbreaks, and other avoidable accidents that may derail the operation of aircraft. Due to these crises, each respective airport has to establish an Airport Emergency Planning (AEP), which aims at reducing hazards, thus providing prompt solutions to each emergency. Precise strategies are employed in AEP, which are specific to certain airbases. Moreover, a Comprehensive Emergency Plan (CEP) provides efficient emergency forecasting approaches by involving various organizations or groups in the AEP.
Various strategies are applied at airports for the planning of emergencies. The proactive strategy is a control technique that involves the airport units being pre-emptive about any emerging risks by endeavoring to reduce any airport crises before they cause disaster. In this case, the approach encompasses the application of past backup data to isolate problem areas and conditions in which an emergency may ensue. Therefore, the strategy guarantees that the complications are mitigated to ascertain that airport disasters do not transpire. Conversely, the reactive strategy involves a series of such actions as rules and guidelines which outline activities and processes necessary for addressing a specific emergency. For instance, reactive strategy is used in such emergencies as terrorism, fire outbreak, or aircraft crashing and explosion.
For both proactive and reactive strategies to be successful in mitigating airport emergencies, proper area assessment is mandatory. Airport assessment involves evaluation of the existing area settings under which the military aircraft are working. Moreover, the airport operational budget and the availability of appropriate airport equipment are necessary for meeting the minimum required standards for various state regulations. Most assessments comprise comprehensive maps and grids of the airfield to ascertain that all crisis operators are accustomed to them, thus enabling quick response within the required minimum of three minutes during emergency events.
CEP as an AEP provides efficient methodologies for airport planning purposes. It includes four phases, which epitomize a structure through which crisis planning is implemented (Stolzer et al., 2013). The mitigation phase delivers airports with awareness of precarious airfield situations (Federal Aviation Administration [FAA], 2020). The phase validates airports’ settings which need to be addressed to minimize risk factors. The second phase is the preparedness and readiness stage, which sanctions the airbases to preserve particular airport policies (FAA, 2020). In this phase, the guidelines warrant that adequate responses for emergencies are measured. The third phase is the response phase which offers appropriate educational drills and training for the implementation of accurate actions in emergencies, thus lowering the chances of developing tragic aircraft accidents (FAA, 2020).
Lastly, the recovery phase provides airports with learning opportunities based on the previous and current emergencies by limiting the chances of reoccurrences, hence restoring the airport to pre-emergency settings (FAA, 2020). In this regard, the separate actions are related to the emergency plan as each particular action plays a role in minimizing or providing opportunities for addressing the emergency plan.
The efficiency and efficacy of an emergency plan are depended upon the collaborative working of the various emergency airport units. For example, the airport authority control is required to work closely with tenants at the airbase to afford safe operations and ensure that all policies at the airport terminal are diligently followed. The medical service providers and the aircraft rescue and fire-fighting (ARFF) work with the airport administrators in the provision of appropriate training necessary for airport ground emergencies (Brown et al., 2017; Gorman & Herron, 2016). Airport traffic control and air carrier operators work together in safeguarding aircraft operations and setups. All airport departments are also mandated to work with the communication service providers to ensure prompt coordination of information among airports’ emergency units. In ascertaining that all safety guidelines and controls are met, the airport administrators and the local community authorities collaborate to reduce local airspace and airfield intrusion.
References
Brown, J. B., Gestring, M. L., Guyette, F. X., Rosengart, M. R., Stassen, N. A., Forsythe, R. M., Billiar, T. R., Peitzman, A. B., & Sperry, J. L. (2017). External validation of the air medical prehospital triage score for identifying trauma patients likely to benefit from scene helicopter transport. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 82(2), 270-279. Web.
Federal Aviation Administration. (2020). AC 150/5200-31C – Airport emergency plan (Consolidated AC includes change2). Web.
Gorman, M. K., & Herron, R. R. I. (2016). Interactive 3-D Software in Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Training. International Journal of Aviation Aeronautics and Aerospace, 3(2), 1-22. Web.
Stolzer, A. J., Halford, C. D., & Goglia, J. J. (2013). Implementing safety management systems in aviation (1st ed.). Ashgate Publishing.