KK airport holds crash simulation

Friday, August 12, 2016

By Olivia Miwi

KOTA KINABALU: Stakeholders at the international airport here had a feel on how to deal with emergencies related to air crash yesterday.

Over 800 people were involved in the drill where a large-scale air crash was simulated complete with 150 acting as "victims" and 40 others as their "next-of-kin".

Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd Airport Fire and Rescue Services general manager Abd Malik Mohd Yunus said the inaugural exercise was in compliance with requirements by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Civil Aviation department (DCA).

“All airports in Malaysia are required to conduct a full-scale exercise once in every two years," he said adding the organisations involved include the authorities and corporate companies that run operations at the airport.

The airport, which has capacity of nine million passengers, was fully completed last year and operates round the clock.

"The simulation will also test whether the emergency plan suit actual situation and coordination among agencies," Malik said.

Also present was Kota Kinabalu International Airport senior airport manager Sunif Naiman who said there would be immediate postmortem by observers and umpires after the one-day exercise.

He added the simulation would help them gauge their capabilities and improve on any shortcomings detected.