LMM airport to carry out emergency exercise Oct. 13
The LMM airport handles 8.5 million passengers a year. (Credit: Larry Luxner)
Aerostar Airport Holdings, LLC, operators of the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport, will be conducting a full-scale emergency exercise at the facility on Oct, 13, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as required by federal aviation regulations.
Under those guidelines U.S. airports are required to conduct a full-scale emergency drill every 36-consecutive calendar months to ensure the highest level of readiness, company officials said.
This type of exercise is a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional, and multi-organizational that validates many facets of the preparedness phase, they said.
“They focus on implementing and analyzing the plans, policies, procedures, and cooperative agreements developed in discussion-based exercises and honed in previous, smaller, operations-based exercises,” executives explained in a prepared statement.
But must importantly, full-scale emergency exercises verify operations in multiple functional areas that develop complex and realistic problems demanding critical thinking, rapid problem solving, and effective responses by trained personnel.
The exercise will simulate a passenger airliner aircraft crash, Boeing 737 sponsored by United Airlines, while landing at LMM, allowing the airport to practice its emergency response procedures, along with business continuity plans to restore functionality as soon as practical.
A variety of agencies will participate, including airport staff, the fire and police departments, local area hospitals, mutual aid units, private universities, and various municipal, state and federal agencies, among others.
The exercise will be conducted in real time, but airport operations will not be affected at any time during the exercise, airport executives said.
