Cologne/Bonn airport Airport simulates horror scenario
Cologne/Bonn airport · There were burning buildings and dead and injured at the airport over the weekend. But don’t worry, it was only an exercise.
10.10am on Saturday: thick white smoke seeps out of a side door of a freight shed at Cologne/Bonn airport and a jet of flame shoots upwards. A few moments later an explosion is heard and a red and yellow ball of fire hangs for seconds over the building’s roof. There is silence for a moment. Then cries for help get louder, a few people stumble out of the inside of the shed and roam around aimlessly in shock. At a window in the upper storey, a small group tries to draw attention to itself. Luckily this horror scenario was not a real catastrophe but an emergency exercise in which the airport fire service, the Cologne fire service, the airbase fire service of the German armed forces and the regional police were taking part.
The scenario: in a freight shed in the commercial area of the airport an explosion occurs followed by a fire during the handling of hazardous freight goods. 35 people are in the building and are either seriously injured or killed. After a first assessment of the damage, the airport fire brigade decides to call in the help of the Cologne fire brigade.
35 people acted as victims and were given a card stating their injuries. As many people again were enlisted as concerned relatives, curious onlookers or tabloid reporters. Michael Wehle of the airport fire brigade said the organisers wanted to make the situation as realistic as possible and test the sources of stress for the emergency services. Daniela Radehorst, alias Melanie, was supposed to try and get into the building because she suspected her brother Timo was inside. Konstanze Borchert had a nervous breakdown in her role as a relative. “I actually cried; the atmosphere was totally realistic,” she reported and added with a smile, “The fireman who caught me almost cried with me.”
A total of 250 people were involved in the exercise. “The cooperation between internal and external emergency personnel is tested through emergency training. Through the airport’s crisis management we can ensure the management of emergencies works,” said Lars Drewes, head of the airport fire brigade, when summing up the aims of the exercise. He said commercial airports were required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation to carry out an emergency exercise every two years.
(Original text: Paul Kieras. Translated by Kate Carey.)
