Navy conducts mock anti-hijack, mass evacuation exercise at Visakhapatnam Airport

Visakhapatnam A mock anti-hijack and mass causualty evacuation exercise was conducted by INS Dega at Visakhapatnam Airport on Thursday.

The exercise was conducted under a simulated situation and involved actions by various agencies including Marine Commandos, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the State Government agencies.

The objective of the exercise was to test the efficacy of the contingency plans and procedures to deal with hijack threats by all stakeholders.

The anti-hijack was organised with a mock situation created using a Naval aircraft for initiating coordinated actions by all stakeholders from the Navy, the Airport and other Central and State agencies. On completion of the exercise, a debrief was conducted and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were revalidated to effectively deal with future contingencies.

The anti-hijack mock drill is conducted at every Indian airport annually as mandated by the National Civil Aviation Security Programme to test the efficiency of the airport’s contingency plan and to familiarise all agencies with their respective responsibilities in a hijack situation.

On completion of the anti-hijack exercise, the mass casualty evacuation exercise was also conducted to test the preparedness of various agencies involved, including the facilitation of a green channel for expeditious movement of ambulances from the airport to King George Hospital (KGH). This exercise is conducted once every two years.