Erfurt Airport completes emergency exercise

An emergency drill was held at Erfurt Airport last weekend. It is a training that must be carried out at periodic intervals. 

The scenario envisaged that an aircraft approaching Erfurt Airport, a Boeing 737-400, would be damaged by a bird strike on engine 1. The aircraft was provided by the ARFF company as a training aircraft. It was directed through the apron control (OCC) to parking position 24. The aircraft was occupied by around 25 passengers and 5 crew members. The aircraft still had around 3,8 t of kerosene on board. When the engine came to a standstill in the parking position, engine 1 caught fire. Numerous people were injured as a result of the fire and the evacuation of people from the ship. 

After the accident, the first arriving airport fire brigade units took over the firefighting on the aircraft. The first responders and resources from the Erfurt fire department went to rescue the people in the aircraft and supported the airport fire department in fighting the fire. 

The injured people were handed over to the medical and care train. The external emergency services found themselves in the designated standby room, where they were registered with the actual arrival times. Furthermore, the alarm and operational plans, the cooperation between the various specialist services (airport fire protection, emergency services, disaster control, federal and state police) and the radio and communication plans were checked during the exercise scenario. At the same time, the site was secured to ward off further dangers. 

A total of 250 emergency services with 57 emergency vehicles were involved in dealing with this damage event at the airport.