Emergency rescue drills at Pulkovo St. Petersburg test airport readiness

Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport and the emergency services of St. Petersburg have staged large-scale emergency rescue drills on the airfield in preparation for the upcoming winter season.

Held from 1 October to 4 October 2019, the rescue squad will deal with an aviation accident caused by the bumpy landing of an Airbus A319 aircraft.

According to the story behind the drills, the Airbus A319 ruptured the starboard landing gear, hydraulics system and damaged the wing tanks when landing at Pulkovo Airport. The leaking hydraulic fluid and jet fuel caught fire under the airliner’s body. There are 40 passengers and five crew members on board, with a threat of flame spreading into the airplane cabin, the passengers’ and crew’s life and health are in danger.

An ‘alarm’ signal is announced at Pulkovo Airport and information promptly sent to the EMERCOM’s department in St. Petersburg. All staff and non-staff units of the airport’s emergency rescue squad immediately arrive at the aircraft and start fire extinguishing, whilst the city fire and medical brigades go to the airport.

After prompt fire liquidation, the rescuers start evacuating passengers and crew from the airplane. The Fire Guard Garrison of St. Petersburg, the Pulkovo Airport Health Unit with the regular equipment and City Ambulance Crews join the rescue operation.

All passengers and crew members are successfully evacuated, medical assistance was provided to the injured. Upon completion of evacuation, the accident scene, the cabin and the baggage compartment are inspected.

This scenario was selected because it is one of the most complicated, including several factors of fire development.

The four-day drills make it possible to engage employees from all operational shifts of the search and rescue flight operations service. A total of 70 employees from the emergency rescue squad take part in the drills: 16 from the staff rescue fire squad on four airfield fire vehicles and 54 from non-staff units of the emergency rescue squad.

Emergency rescue drills are staged twice per year at Pulkovo Airport, before the winter and summer seasons, to test readiness and practice actions of all services of the airport.