Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has successfully conducted a mandatory partial emergency exercise to test for Entebbe International Airport’s readiness in case of an emergency, Director General ,Fred k. Bamwesigye ,has said.
“This time round the drill simulated a situation in which an aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff and one of its engines catches fire on the threshold of the runway.
It was presumed that ‘some people lost their lives and a number of survivors were critically injured’, which sparked off an emergency situation involving airport fire-fighters and other rescue agencies that were called in to ‘save lives’. The exercise helped us to test emergency plans and procedures, communication framework, response times and coordination abilities,” Bamwesigye explained at media briefing shortly after the exercise .
CAA Director General , Fred Bamwesigye while addressing the media in Entebbe
He thanked CAA’s valued stakeholders who participated in the partial exercise, including medics from various hospitals, Uganda Red Cross Society, Police Medical Services, Uganda Peoples Defense Air Force (UPDAF), Aviation Police, Entebbe Police Fire Brigade, national security agencies, Uganda Airlines, ground handling agents, volunteers who acted as injured passengers and UCAA staff, among others.
The exercise, Bamwesigye said is a mandatory requirement for international Airports of countries that are contracting member States of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The last partial emergency exercise was held in December 2020 and the full-scale emergency exercise.
Entebbe Airport continues to register a positive surge in passenger traffic and aircraft movements since the Covid 19 pandemic.
Bamwesigye said that in In May 2024, Entebbe Airport facilitated 92,298 arrivals and 89,036 departures, a total of 181,334 international passengers which is an average of 5,849.
This comes on the heels of a daily average of 5,313 in April 2024, 5,548 in March 2024, 6,116 in February 2024 and 6,329 in January 2024. A comparison of May 2024, to May 2023 traffic shows that the Airport facilitated 28,324 more passengers in May 2024 than in the same period of May 2023.
