Emergency Management in the International Nashville Airport - Research Paper Example

Emergency Management in the International Nashville Airport Introduction Globally, the airport management has received considerable importance. Airports are mostly used to commute between cities, states and countries. They provide quick, reliable and faster access to the required destinations. They minimize time consumption as compared with other means of transportation. However, the recent past has added new dimensions to the airport management. The frequency of emergencies and accidents at airports has considerably increased, and it has become a monumental task to manage different emergencies or accident-related situations and conditions at the airports. There are different types of emergency: natural disasters and man-made situations and disasters. The natural disasters may appear in the shape of hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes while man-made disasters include acts of terrorism, food poisoning or any other issue that may be technical. Based on this assessment, the emergency response plan cannot be absolute or perfect; rather, it may be developed based on the type of the disaster. However, there are certain aviation standards, procedures and protocols essential for all types of emergencies or accidents. In the following parts of this paper, Incident Command System (ICS) has been discussed. It is a national level protocol describing the different aspects and concepts related to emergency. The key concepts inbuilt in it are common terminology, unity of command and so on. It is followed by the part mentioning Nashville International Airport background and different awards (as well as reasons for them) won by the airport. Additionally, the subsequent paragraph elaborates the basic information relating to the airport. After that part, rules and regulations relating to the Accident Reports and Emergency Conditions have been provided and discussed. These rules and regulations have been taken from Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority. Before the conclusion part, the analysis of Nashville Airport emergency response exercises has been provided. The exercises have been described in detail to provide different steps taken by different authorities while responding to the emergency situations. Incident Command System The Incident Command System (ICS) is a nationally developed and controlled collection of constructs, procedures and operating practices providing synergistic principles for emergency response agencies (Kenville et al., 2009). This system was initially developed and established in 1970s in numerous formats and has become the widely used de facto standard amongst all agencies, particularly those working under the federal supervision. The key concepts inbuilt in the ICS are Clear Text (common terminology), Unity of Command, Flexible/Modular Organization, Management by Objective and Span-of-Control. In the United States, ICS has been used for more than 30 years in both non-emergency and emergency situations and is widely practiced at all levels of government, and private sector agencies are needed to ensure differing levels of ICS training. As a part of Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) National Response Plan (NRP), the entire constructs of ICS have been integrated into the National Incident Management System (NIMS). In the year of 2004, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Tom Ridge, made it necessary that all federal agencies and departments include and adopt NIMS and enforce it in domestic emergency prevention, events and incidents management, response, preparedness, mitigation activities and programs, and recovery. Simultaneously, DHS also issued directions that those agencies should assist and support state, local and tribal entities if they forward their requests for federal assistance. ICS influences the different aspects of airport emergency management and response planning. The fundamental aim of ICS is to offer assistance and guidance to all federal, state and local authorities on the issues relating to emergency and incident planning. The importance of emergency management and response planning has considerably increased after the events of 9/11, when the security protocol of airports was violated. Nashville International Airport (BNA) Background and Statistics Berry Field (BNA), also known as Nashville International Airport, became operational in 1937 on a 340-acre land (Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, n.d.). Since then, BNA has rapidly evolved into one of the world’s busiest customer-friendly airports. The success of the airport can be gauged from the fact that BNA received Best Overall Concessions Program Award in 2010. Also, in 2009 BNA earned such awards as Airport with the Best Customer Service, Airport with the Most Unique Services, and the Best Concessions Management Team. In the 2011 Airport Concessions Contest, BNA received the Richard A. Griesbach Award of Excellence from the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA). Various factors have contributed to the successful establishment of BNA. BNA’s terminal is more than 1 million-square-foot. The airport has 15 commuter aircraft parking positions and 44 gates are operational to facilitate passenger frequency. More importantly, up to 78 commuter aircraft parking positions on 4,500 acres have been established to increase the speed of different flight operations. In order to appropriately facilitate mobility of different aircrafts, BNA has been furnished with four runways. The purpose of establishing and successfully maintaining four runways is to provide better services to nearly 10 million passengers who use the airport every year. In addition to that, BNA has employed 39,700 jobs annually with an annual wage bill of $ 1.18 billion. In the year of 2011, the airport supplied more than 45,000 tons of cargo to different destinations. In the same year, the airport had 380 flights every day. Nashville International Airport: Rules and Regulations Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has framed a range of rules and regulations. These rules and regulations are framed to cover various aspects, accidents, and emergencies that could take place at Nashville International Airport. In order to ascertain legal aspects of different emergencies and accidents at the airport, Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has developed the following rules and regulations. Although there are various rules and regulations, the author has only selected the rules and regulations relevant to the paper requirements. 4A-1-25 Accident Reports This section mainly deals with the method of reporting accident at BNA. The clause 4A-1-25 mentions the following: All persons involved in any accident, including aircraft or automobile, occurring on the airport property shall make a full report to the airport police officer on duty as soon after the accident as possible and when a written report of an aircraft accident is required by Federal Aviation Regulations, a copy of such report may be submitted in lieu of the report required above (Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, 1999, p. 11). The section provides guidance to emergency or accident-reporting mechanism. The section requires that when emergency or accident takes place at the airport, the airport police officer should be reached and reported about the emergency or accident. Subsequent to that, the section describes that the reporting officer should send a copy of aircraft accident required by Federal Aviation Regulations instead of providing the original report. 4A-1-26 Emergency Conditions The section elaborates emergency conditions occurring at the airport. The section 4A-1-26 maintains that “Emergency conditions existing on the airport property will not mitigate or cancel any existing condition” (Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, 1999, p.12). The sub-section of this clause states: “All persons, vehicles, and taxiing aircraft shall yield right-of-way to emergency equipment… All persons shall move to areas so directed when an emergency exists in the terminal building” (Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, 1999, p. 12). The first section elaborates the impacts of emergency on the regular activities at the airport. The section maintains that in case of any emergency conditions, the routine airport activities should not be affected by the effects of emergency condition; instead, they must continue without any interruption. For example, flight operations would continue even if an aircraft has crashed near to the airport. The crashed aircraft accident would not mitigate or cancel any other flight operations at the airport. However, some instructions may be implemented which have been described in the subsequent part of the section. The emergency equipment shall be provided to persons, vehicles and the aircraft in order to safeguard human lives and minimize the impact of damage. Additionally, the section provides that the persons shall not individually take actions but they should follow directions when an emergency exists in the terminal building. Emergency Responses: Emergency Practices at the Airport There can be no perfect plan to tackle all types of emergency situations. The airport authorities not only prepare for a particular sort of attack, emergency and accident taking place at the airport but also plan, develop and execute a variety of emergency response plans with an aim of dealing with any accident, emergency, attack within the airport premises. Keeping this view in mind, the paper describes and analyzes different exercises to tackle different types of emergencies, accidents and attacks. All of the following exercises have been taken from the official website of Nashville government. April 2003 Metropolitan Nashville International Airport experienced a full scale exercise involving the participation and activation of the Airport Command Centre along with Unified Command in order to tackle an emergency situation in which a plane crash has taken place within the airport premises. Subsequently, the scenario required mass causality extrication, rescue, treatment and triage and firefighting suppression and steps to tackle jet fuel from the plane crash. In this exercise, a number of metropolitan agencies participated and coordinated with the airport’s Department of Public Safety (Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tennessee, 2012). Analysis This exercise authenticates the involvement of a number of agencies in dealing with any emergency situation. In the emergency situation, a plane has crashed and the relevant airport authorities have to tackle the emergency situation. As soon as they hear about the accident, the airport authorities activate the Airport Command Centre and Unified Command. This is the first step to tackle the emergency situation. It is highly important that the Unified Command be activated. In the absence of the Unified Command, it would be very difficult to minimize impact of damage and reduce the number of causalities. Extrication and rescue process begins. During this process, the affected are rescued from the scene. After they are rescued, they receive treatment and other kinds of medical care. The seriously injured would be shifted to a nearby hospital through an ambulance and the dead bodies would also be shifted to the hospital for their identification and post-mortem. However, there are certain limitations in this exercise. First, it does not mention the coordination between the agencies involved to tackle the emergency situation. Normally, different agencies have different mandates and they work within their protocols. For example, 4A-1-25 Accident Reports clearly mentions that all persons involved in any such accident or emergency would be required to report to the on-duty airport police officer. Although this exercise has demonstrated certain relevant steps essential in tackling such type of emergency situations, the absence of coordination makes it less effective. In the practical situations, all agencies and the airport police officers operate within their mandates and protocols. Nobody is allowed to intermingle with other’s mandates or protocols, and if someone does intermingle, he or she may face disciplinary action from the relevant authorities. As a result, the provided exercise should have mentioned the role of different individuals who participated in the exercise and collaborated with other people serving in other agencies. Without coordination and cooperation, such emergencies would be disastrous and the damage would not be controlled as it should be. May 2012 The Nashville International Airport was put to the test during a full-scale airport emergency plan exercise (Murphy, 2012). In this exercise, Federal Aviation Administration regulations mandated airports to conduct the emergency plan exercises every year along with annual tabletop exercises in the off years. Many agencies participated and coordinated their efforts in the exercise. During the exercise, the Red Cross, the emergency personnel, police, fire officials, and EMS dealt with a simulated disaster. Murphy (2012) reported that half of the volunteers on board a Nashville-bound flight were said to have received food poisoning during the exercise. Emergency steps were taken in the following fashion. Emergency crews were mandated to evacuate the plane safely whilst providing medical aid to the sick crew members and passengers. Murphy (2012) further reported that the exercise has become essential to test the functionality and effectiveness of the response procedures and plans of the Nashville airport and the participating federal, state, local and relevant community agencies. Analysis The provided actions for handling the emergency situation at Nashville International Airport look effective. They are taken in a proper sequence and with clear cut directions. Additionally, such tests are highly required for various reasons. By conducting such exercises and tests, the airport authorities and other airport federal, state and local regulatory authorities are able to understand the current level of expertise and compliance with the existing aviation rules and regulations. In addition to that, the airport authorities learn whether or not their installed capacity to tackle emergency and accident situations remains professionally operational. Based on their experience obtained from such tests and exercises, the airport authorities and other regulatory bodies try to identify weaknesses and limitations present in the emergency response. The weaknesses may be highlighted in the shape of communication or coordination between the operating agencies, or they may be in the shape of insufficient expertise essential to meet the requirements of the emergency situations. However, there cannot be perfect planning to tackle every emergency situation; rather, there should be minimum planning that would be sufficient to tackle all types of emergencies and accidents. By having minimum capacity, the airport and regulatory authorities are in a position to respond to any type of emergency and they can minimize physical and human losses. Conclusion Nashville Airport has conducted various emergency exercises. These exercises include different types of emergencies and accidents in which the airport authorities such as federal, state and local authorities participated and coordinated their actions. As regards the May 2003 exercise, the provided description did not mention coordination between or among the different agencies involved to tackle the situation. In the absence of any coordination between the operating agencies, it would be very challenging to minimize the human or material losses and there would be more chances of increasing the losses beyond the expected level. However, the May 2012 exercise did not repeat this mistake – the account of this event described that the acting agencies were in active cooperation and coordination and they properly managed the different aspects of the situation. In this exercise, the emergency personnel, Red Cross, police and firefighters participated and coordinated their actions with the members of other agencies in order to properly manage the emergency situation. References Kenville, K.A., McBride, R.B., Higgins, J.A., Petros, T.V., Jensen, W.C., Yurkovich, E. (2009). Helping airport and air carrier employees cope with traumatic events. Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP). ACRP Report 22. Murphy, L. (2012, May 08). Nashville airport conducts emergency plan Tuesday. Retrieved from http://www.wkrn.com/story/18186746/nashville-airport-conducts-emergency-plan-tuesday Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority. (n.d.). Nashville International Airport (BNA). Retrieved from http://www.nashintl.com/about/pdfs/MNAAonepager.pdf Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority. (1999). Rules and regulations for the use of airports and facilities. Retrieved http://www.johntune.com/main/Rules_and_Regulations_BNA_JWN_Apr1999_Current.pdf Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tennessee. (2012). 2000-2006 exercises. Retrieved from http://www.nashville.gov/oem/exercises.asp Read More