2 days Ago By Denise Mae P. Codis
TO ENSURE airport emergency readiness, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) held on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, an airport crash and rescue simulation exercise. The Mactan Airport Crash and Rescue Exercise (Macrex) 2024 was participated by over 200 volunteers, including security and rescue enforcement groups of MCIAA and local government units (LGUs).
Julius Neri Jr., MCIAA general manager, in an interview with SunStar Cebu on Tuesday, said the MCIAA alternately does theoretical exercises and practical drills each year. “We need to prepare for the best and worst.
.. It’s one thing to study the theory; it’s another thing to go through the process of the possible scenarios.
So we have this alternately every year, sometimes it’s tabletop for theoretical and here we have the actual,” said Neri. Neri added that they are working together with LGUs for better enforcement and assistance when an emergency arises. The Macrex 2024 started at around 2 p.
m. and ended at 4 p.m.
, with several firefighters, men in uniform and medical practitioners joining the simultaneous simulations. The Macrex exercise is also necessary for the airport to achieve Category I certification from the aviation authority which is conducted every two years. On Monday, Sept.
16, the MCIAA conducted a passenger welfare exercise at the International Terminal 2. Neri noted that critical incidents may happen anytime, in good or bad weather. On Oct.
23, 2022, a Korean Air flight KE 631 overshot Mactan airport on a rainy night with low visibility. Thus, the exercise, Neri said, is designed to assess and improve emergency response skills and ensure effective coordination among local and MCIAA responders. Assessment Ver Neil Balaba, chief of the Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Division Office of Civil Defense 7, said the simulation exercise was “excellent” in terms of the response system’s strategic operational and practical level of response.
Meanwhile, SFO2 Conarcami Ortiz Jr., one of the evaluators from the Bureau of Fire and Protection, recommended the need for better victim identification, strategic ambulance positioning and designated lanes to ensure orderly patient handling and exhaust management. / DPC.
