Port Blair, Aug 19: A mock drill was conducted at INS Utkrosh on Tuesday to exercise the emergency services of the islands on ability to handle an Air Crash Accident and Mass Casualty Evacuation at the Airport. The Exercise was carried out in co-ordination with all medical units of A & N Command and several agencies of the A & N Administration viz., Directorate of Health Services, Directorate of Disaster Management, GB Pant Hospital, Pillar Hospital, Civil Police, CISF, Air Port Authority of India, Jet Airways, Civil Fire Fighting Agencies. Detailed coordination among all these agencies had been carried out earlier also.
The Mock Drill commenced at 3.30 pm and the crash of a Jet Airways aircraft was simulated. The Safety Services of INS Utkrosh commenced their action to control the fire on board followed by evacuation of casualties and other Crash & salvage related activities. The Medical Department of INS Utkrosh started the triage of the injured passengers and initial First Aid and Resuscitation. A total of 18 ambulances (10 from Armed Forces units and 08 from civil sources) reached the aircraft crash site along with Medical Officers and Medical Assistants. Nine Medical Officers were from the Armed Forces and one was from GB Pant Hospital.
49 simulated ‘casualties’ were evacuated to GB Pant Hospital, 15 to INHS Dhanvantari and five to Pillar Hospital for emergency medical assistance within 45 minutes of the commencement of the exercise by multiple runs of the available ambulances. A dedicated corridor was established by the civil traffic police to ensure smooth flow of traffic and fast evacuation of the casualties to various hospitals. The casualties were received by the above mentioned hospitals and re-triage was conducted, followed by commencement of treatment as per the severity of injured and the priority allotted to the patients. Crisis Expansion Wards were established by the respective hospitals and Surgical Teams were assembled. The readiness of the Operation Theatres and availability of Disaster Management Stores was assessed to handle the large influx of critically injured patients. 10 simulated ‘dead casualties’ were also sent to GB Pant Hospital for medical procedures, assessment of the mortuary services and the identification and ‘Panchnama’ related formalities.
The exercise was supervised by several independent observers from A & N Command and the Civil Administration. The exercise was conducted smoothly with excellent synergy and cohesion between the civil and military agencies involved. The Mock Drill was called off at 1630 hrs. The exercise was deliberately conducted as a surprise event to bring in realism which probably caused some inconvenience to the public, but resulted in learning important lessons for HADR mechanism in this Union Territory, said Col Yogesh Sharma, Command PRO in a release.
