The César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport has carried out this Wednesday a general air accident drill to analyze its response capacity and coordination with external aid resources. This recreation has been carried out in an exercise called Operación Garceta 2026, which has consisted of the simulation of an accident of a commercial aircraft type ATR72 from the company Falsair.
This fictional aircraft declared the emergency situation on approach to the airport after detecting an engine failure. Subsequently, it crashed a few kilometers from the premises, in the area of Montaña Mina, and lost communication. On impact, the aircraft suffered a major structural damage to the fuselage and caught fire.
After the call from the Canary Islands Control Center, the Control Tower immediately gave the alert to the Rescue and Firefighting Service (SSEI) and communicated the incident to the Operations Center, thus activating the airport's Emergency Plan. Furthermore, the Crisis Committee was formed and the Main Command Post (PMP) and the Advanced Command Post (PMA) were established, and it also informed the external entities contemplated in the Plan.
Thus, the Territorial Civil Protection Plan of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands (Plateca) was activated, and the General Directorate of Emergencies (DGE) of the Government of the Canary Islands assumes command of the emergency.
Multiple victims and deceased
The accident leaves a toll of multiple victims, including fatalities. The seriously injured are immediately transferred to a hospital and the rooms for the lightly injured and uninjured, both passengers and crew, are activated to accommodate those who are stable and provide them with psychological and health assistance.
Likewise, both the family room and the press room are activated. Once the situation is controlled and the area declared safe, the command posts declare the drill concluded.
In the execution of the drill, in addition to Aena staff and companies that work at César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport, the following have participated: the General Directorate of Emergencies of the Government of the Canary Islands through the 112 Emergency Coordination Center and the Canarian Emergency Service (SUC), the Government Delegation, the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) of the Government of the Canary Islands, National Police, Civil Guard, Canarian Police, Lanzarote Island Emergency Consortium, Local Police and Civil Protection of the San Bartolomé City Council, Binter Canarias, Atlántica de Handling, CanaryFly, Red Cross, the official colleges of Psychology and Social Work of Las Palmas, the CIF Zonzamas and the IES Blas Cabrera Felipe. In total, more than 130 people intervened in this exercise, which was carried out without affecting airport operations.
The objective of the drill is to test the contents of the airport's Emergency Plan, confirming its effectiveness, the coordination between the different resources and increasing the confidence of the teams and people involved in this type of situation.
With this exercise, the César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport complies with the regulations of the OACI (International Civil Aviation Organization) regarding airport emergency planning, where all action procedures are gathered, as well as the protocols for requesting external and coordinated assistance.
All Aena airports have had an Emergency Plan, aimed at minimizing the consequences that an air accident or any other incident would have in the airport facilities, guaranteeing the care of human lives and operational continuity.