Supervised by the Loire-Atlantique prefecture, a disaster scenario will aim to test the reaction of the departmental emergency services, late Wednesday afternoon – despite the strike paralyzing the platform. More than 700 people are expected to be involved in this operation.
Le Figaro Nantes
Anticipate, rather than endure. Nantes Atlantique airport will be the center of particular attention on Wednesday, during the organization of a civil security exercise “of great magnitude” within the perimeter of the airport platform, in Bouguenais. An airplane's runway excursion will be simulated. Coordinated by the operations department of the Loire-Atlantique prefecture, the exercise should take place at the end of the afternoon.
“This exercise will make it possible to test the departmental ORSECA (Organization of Civil Security Response) plan,” specifies the prefecture. More than 700 people, spread across different sites and multiple departments, should be mobilized for a scenario “with the greatest possible realism”on a scenario involving numerous victims.
A closed road section
The precise organization of the exercise had to be readjusted due to a strike by the aircraft rescue and firefighting service (SSLIA) of Nantes Atlantique. According to the prefecture and the airport, the operation should be able to take place on Wednesday, despite the ongoing social movement paralyzing the platform's activity. And despite the absence of at least part of the expected workforce. “This exercise, on which the services have been working for more than a year, is absolutely necessary for security reasons and to ensure good knowledge of the airport by all stakeholders”indicated to Figaro the Loire-Atlantique prefecture, Wednesday afternoon.
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The objective of the exercise is to check the responsiveness of the various actors involved, as well as the treatment of false victims by the emergency services. To do this, the prefecture's operations department will examine the implementation of the alert system, the reporting of information to the various command services, communication as well as the coordination of services within the operational command. The holding of this civil security exercise will cause the temporary closure of a section of the VM751A, between Bouguenais and Bouaye, from 5:30 p.m., and the establishment of a diversion via the RD723. A bus line – the 88 – will also be diverted. The closed section will be reopened around midnight.
Crisis management exercises must be organized every two years at airports, says European legislation. The previous large-scale ORSECA operation organized on the Nantes Atlantique platform dates back to June 2014. The spectacular operation featured the carcass of an airliner, in a crash scenario on takeoff. More than 300 people were mobilized, for a fictitious toll of 5 dead and 15 seriously injured.
