Successful emergency drill at Cairo airport

By Mohamed Attia

Egypt’s Cairo International Airport conducted a successful emergency drill at Terminal 4 of Building 1, in line with the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s commitment to being fully prepared for any emergency situations that may occur at airports and to measure the ability of individuals to respond to any accidents.

The drill involved the discovery of smoke coming from the air conditioning vents in the arrival hall, which triggered the alarm siren and notified the main operations centre. The evacuation of the hall began, with employees and passengers evacuated and the electricity to the hall cut off. Some passengers fainted, and fire trucks, ambulances, and civil defence vehicles arrived immediately and began to respond.

Through the cooperation of all relevant parties, the fire in the air conditioning units was successfully extinguished. The necessary measures were taken with the injured, the smoke was removed from the hall, and life returned to normal.

The drill was conducted by the Emergency and Crisis Management Department of the Operations Sector in cooperation with the Security Sector, the Engineering Sector, the Occupational Safety and Health Sector, the Public Relations and Protocol Sector, Cairo Airport Police, the Civil Defence, Customs, Quarantine, and Ambulances, and all other entities operating at the airport.

The drill is in line with the instructions of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to ensure that the training level in responding to crises and emergencies is raised, and to increase the ability to respond to such situations efficiently, in addition to achieving integration and continuous cooperation between all entities operating at the airport.