On Monday, a full-scale emergency exercise was held at the ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago.
This exercise, conducted every two years, ensures compliance with the standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and regulations as promoted by the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority for renewal of aerodrome certification.
General Manager of the Airports Authority, Hayden Newton, explained that Monday’s exercise was the first simulation exercise of this nature done by the Authority in Tobago.
“In the past we would have simulated crashes and landings with challenges but this one where, given what we are seeing internationally, with turbulence occurring in terms of inflight traffic, we thought it was important for all agencies, the stakeholders including the Airports Authority, to take part in an exercise like this and to test our preparedness to deal with this kind of simulation.”
THA Secretary of Tourism, Tashia Grace Burris, was among officials who witnessed the exercise. She said it comes at a suitable time as Tobago is expecting increased flights with the new terminal of the ANR Robinson International Airport.
“Having the exercise coincidentally happen right after the practical completion of that building is very very important because it tests our ability in terms of our capacity to see how we can handle having both a west terminal and an east terminal. I have been given assurances that we have the resources and the capacity to be able to handle operations on the both sides of ANR Robinson International Airport.”
According to THA Health Secretary Dr. Faith Brebnor, the exercise also demonstrated the importance of collaboration.
“For example CERT. CERT is part of TEMA which is not part of the Division, which is not part of the TRHA, but everybody working together to ensure we provide the best kind of service to the individuals who need it. I hope we never actually need to do something like this but if we do I think we are in a better place now compared to where we were.”
Meanwhile, Tobago Emergency Management Agency Director, Dr. Allan Stewart, said the operations highlighted gaps that need to be addressed before an incident occurs.
“That of resources in the area of machinery resources. We recognised there were some transportation issues. The availability of ambulances, things like that and it allows us to do in our service improvement plan to work with one that will see improvement in those areas.”