NEWS RELEASE
September 21, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DISASTER EXERCISE RATED A
SUCCESS
The disaster response exercise held at Kelowna International Airport the morning of
Thursday September 21st 2006 was a success for all agencies involved. Over 100
people actively took part in the simulated crash landing of an Air Canada Jazz CRJ200
aircraft including Airport Operations, Airport Security, Nav Canada, the RCMP, BC
Ambulance Service and the Kelowna, Ellison and Lake Country Fire Departments.
Students from Rutland Senior Secondary participated as aircraft passengers. The
exercise included the transport of mass casualties to Kelowna General Hospital which
gave BC Ambulance and Interior Health the opportunity to practice their response
readiness to a disaster with a high number of casualties.
Today’s exercise, “Operation Unity 2006”, was the largest ever staged at Kelowna
International Airport and was the culmination of 12 months of planning. Representatives
from Transport Canada, the emergency response agencies and various airlines were on
hand to observe and critique the emergency response.
On-site emergency response agencies work under the supervision of an Airport
Emergency Coordination Centre (ECC) using a Unified Command system where each
agency is responsible for its own personnel. A core planning group within the Regional
Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was also involved over the past year to ensure the
exercise would be of maximum benefit to all participants. Over 25 EOC personnel ran
through an ancillary table-top exercise at the main firehall on Enterprise Way; agencies
actively involved included Interior Health, the BC Coroner’s Office and School District 23.
Staff focused on two main objectives: support of emergency personnel at the airport and
development of a response strategy to deal with a plume of toxic smoke emanating from
the crash site.
The scope of the exercise reflects the fact that larger passenger aircraft are regularly
flying into Kelowna International Airport. Large passenger aircraft also frequently fly over
Kelowna on a daily basis en route to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto, and
Kelowna’s runway length makes it a suitable landing site in the event of an emergency.
These exercises not only provide “hands on” training for the various emergency
response personnel, they also provide the opportunity to practice a coordinated
emergency response in terms of fire suppression, airport operations, site security and
safety, rescue, triage, transport and treatment at hospital.
“Safety is vitally important in every detail of the airport’s operations,” notes Dave Fuller,
Assistant General Manager, Airport Operations. “I can confidently say today’s events
have shown that we have a well-coordinated emergency plan in place and its
effectiveness, and the readiness of all first responders, was demonstrated through
today’s exercise.”
“This was a dry run of our Emergency Operations Centre,” says Rene Blanleil, Chief of
the Kelowna Fire Department, “which allowed us to fine tune areas such as
documentation and technical communications.” “These exercises also allow us to train
more personnel so that we have depth in the numbers of functionally capable people
who are confident in their roles and ready to go when we need their assistance.”
Kelowna International Airport is required to stage a major disaster exercise every five
years to meet the requirements of Transport Canada regulations.
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