Economic Confidential, March, 2009

NEWS UPDATE

Stakeholders on Emergency Participate in Air Crash Simulation

As part of its mandates towards monitoring the state of preparedness of all organizations which may contribute to disaster management in Nigeria, the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA, staged a Simulation (mock) exercise on Air crash within the Abuja Airport Environment which witnessed the participation of all relevant agencies.

The Director General of NEMA, AVM Mohammed Audu-Bida (Rtd) said the purpose of the simulation exercise is to test the capabilities of the first response agencies in the event of an air crash within the airport vicinity where both national and international passengers are involved.

Audu-bida while observing a few shortcoming in response capability he described the exercise as very successful especially in medical response, equipment holding, media and information management.

While commending the participating agencies for working towards the same goals of safety of lives and properties, he promised that the next simulation would not be announced to monitor their level of preparedness. He said “we should not wait for another accident before we work out strategies to avoid recurrence. We will ensure continuation of this exercise”

The officer-in-charge of Airport Inspection and Safety, AVM Ahmed Muazu while assessing the response capability exhibited by the agencies during the exercise, said though the men and women gave a good account of themselves but there is astill a lot to be learned. “The timing of the response ws a bit slow and cordoning off the accident area was not properly done. We had a large crowd around the area and I think the coordination needs to be improved upon.”

The mock exercise which involved rescue of passengers from an aircraft had the participation of all the agencies responsible for emergency situations in Nigeria. Some of the Agencies include Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigerian Customs Service’ Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Airforce, National Security and Civil Defence Corps, National Hospital, Nigerian Red Cross Society, Federal Ministry of Aviation, Accident Investigation Bureau and Journalists covering disaster under the auspices of Journalists Against Disaster.

The stimulation exercise which involved mock smoke from an airplane, witnessed mobilization of Fire Fighters, Health Workers, Security personnel  and emergency agencies coming to rescue and evacuate the passengers within few minutes.

Some of the observers at the occasion included Air Officer Operation NAF HQ, Commissioner of Police Fct Command, ACG Border Patrol Nigeria Immigration Services, ACG Training Nigeria Customs Services, members of the National Assembly and the media.