On Thursday, the Regina Airport Authority conducted a full-scale emergency training exercise involving over 100 people. The Airport Fire Department, the City of Regina Fire Department, EMS and police all took part in the scenario, a recreation of an aircraft hitting a ground vehicle on the runway. Some participants acted as passengers and flight crew, complete with makeup to simulate injuries. The airport firefighters are experts at dealing with aircraft fires and the city fire department acts in a supporting role, providing many extra hands for search and rescue. “There’s no substitute for actually getting together and running a scenario and then having the conversation after about what went right, what went wrong, taking the lessons learned from that and then updating our policies and procedures,” Deputy Fire Chief Gord Hewitt said. The two fire departments have conducted joint training exercises for many years and say working together is critical. Transport Canada mandates the full-scale exercise every two years, with a tabletop version of the scenario run in the off year. “It’s a very realistic, well-planned exercise where we have the response from the city as well as our time, activating the EOC, the emergency operations centre at the airport,” Kyla Antonini at the Regina Airport Authority said. With files from Gareth Dillistone
