GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Plans are underway for a full-scale emergency airport disaster drill at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport.
The drill will take place between 7 a.m. and noon on Thursday.
Mock disasters such as this are required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) every 3 years.
“These live mock disaster drills are extremely important in making sure all agencies that are part of the county’s emergency response plan are prepared in the event of an emergency,” said Airport Director Marty Piette. “It gives all of us an opportunity to exercise our response protocols and procedures and ensure they integrate with one another. It is a tremendous learning opportunity.”
The exact details of the drill are not given until right before the drill starts.
The end goal of the exercise is to demonstrate familiarity with current Standard Operating Procedures and to define areas that may need to be reviewed.
A team has been meeting and planning for the drill for the past year.
“We decide what the scope of the exercise will look like,” said Piette. “There are certain boxes we have to check from an FAA standpoint, but we do have to make some decisions about the scale, and the amount of volunteers we might need.”
Following the exercise, an evaluation is compiled from all participating agencies and a final review takes place to discuss strong points and areas where improvements could be made.
“Then after that, there’s an ‘after action’ report that is compiled that get’s into more of the details of ‘maybe this didn’t go so well, so we will try something else next time,'” said Piette. “It’s actually a pretty lengthy process after the drill.”
No flights in and out of Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport will be affected by the drill.
Comments