THE CAPABILITIES of Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) and the island’s protective and emergency response services were tested with the simulation of an aircraft crash yesterday.
Corporate communications specialist of GAIA, Keith Goddard, described the simulation scenario: a helicopter carrying four people crashed into a field on the GAIA grounds where 15 people were surveying the area; a number of persons including the passengers on board the helicopter were hurt, triggering a mass casualty situation that required the Royal Barbados Police Force, the Barbados Fire Service, the Barbados Ambulance Service and the Barbados Defence Force to respond.
Manager of Caribbean Disaster Management Services, Clive Lorde, said that through the exercise it was recognized that the agencies needed to work more together in scenarios to define roles and responsibilities and to understand each other’s standards for operations in the field before they were actually thrust into a casualty situation.
Read full story in today’s MIDWEEK NATION.
