Emergency Drills for Airlines and Airports

Emergency Drills and Exercises are essential for airlines and airports to train for, assess, practice, and improve performance in simulated, risk-free environments. Airlines and airports commonly use drills and exercises to prevent incidents and accidents and to protect people and assets in the event that such events manifest themselves. Most airlines and airports don't have tools to effectively manage or document their emergency drills. These operators often resort to paper or MS Excel to document each exercise and who participated.

Airlines and airports are commonly required to document critical emergency drills and exercises. Reports of these exercises may be sent to civil aviation authorities in regular reports. Examples include: CPR, fire, ditching, evacuation and automatic external defibrillator (AED) exercises.

Besides compliance with regulatory requirements, airlines and airports benefit from conducting emergency drills by:

• Clarifying and training personnel in roles and responsibilities;
• Improving inter-agency coordination and communications;
• Identifying shortcomings in qualified personnel and resources;
• Improving individual performance; and
• Identifying opportunities for improvement.

SMS Pro version 1 of the Emergency Drills module is included in the safety assurance section of the aviation safety management systems (SMS) software.

Managers can schedule airline or airport emergency drills and exercises. Furthermore, they can document who participated, when the drill must be performed again and any shortcomings associated with the drill. Emergency Drills module is integrated with hazard reporting and risk management framework, thereby allowing managers to track and follow up on corrective preventive actions stemming from any emergency drill or exercise shortcomings.