Airport Disaster Management

Extract

Coping with an airport disaster is difficult. It is enough to have once been the witness of such an event to understand the enormity of the problem. Instantaneously, the routine atmosphere becomes a nightmare. There are smoke, flames, vehicles, useful people and useless people and above all, the dead, the injured, and the uninjured survivors, some of whom are running about.

An airport disaster plan should be carefully set up and applied as strictly as possible. Many features exist in our favor: (a) we know the place; (b) we can roughly evaluate in advance the magnitude of the problem as far as the number of victims is concerned, thanks to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) studies; (c) we can keep in mind the classification of the injured and the medical policy with which now all seem to agree, that is to give on-site immediate care and control evacuation; and (d) we can utilize the medical resources of the surrounding community in a co-ordinated way. This paper summarizes the basic principles for disaster control.