Salzburg Airport trained for emergencies on Friday under the project name "Sierra 02". The assumption of the exercise was that an Airbus A319 touched down very late on runway 15 due to crosswinds and left the runway at taxiway E. The fictitious machine only comes to a standstill at the Lima runway, but then the landing gear catches fire.

It was assumed that there were 20 passengers and six crew members on board. A private plane that was already standing at Foxtrot hold before the A319 landed and was waiting for take-off clearance was severely damaged. Exercises are there to identify potential sources of error and to optimize processes and procedures that are already good. This also worked very well in the Sierre 02 crisis exercise.

“From the time the alarm was raised at 14 p.m. to the end of the exercise, the blue light organizations and the operational management of the airport worked perfectly and worked together. The processes fitted well, the interfaces worked and the situation was managed more than satisfactorily in cooperation with everyone involved. Many thanks to all colleagues from the airport team and also to our extras. Thanks also to the external blue light organizations who were there so quickly, the exercise was a complete success," said Werner Wimmer, the airport fire brigade commander.

Due to official requirements, emergency exercises with a wide variety of scenarios (flight emergency, hijacking, terrorist act/attack, bomb threat, etc.) must be carried out at international airports at specified intervals. These exercises are necessary in order to prepare everyone involved, from the blue light organizations to the operational areas or the press departments of the various organizations, for a crisis situation that will hopefully never occur.