Emergency crews simulated the after effects of a huge plane crash in Salford yesterday.
Police, firefighters, airport crews and paramedics mocked up a scenario with mass casulaties at City Airport Barton where one aircraft was entirely burnt out.
Normally the airport only needs to carry out one exercise every five years, as regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority.
But bosses at City Airport Barton said they were keen to test out their ability to deal with big emergencies more often.
City Airport Director Nick Duriez said: “This kind of exercise is key in testing the airport emergency procedures and multi-agency response.
“We are required to make sure everything works well together in a full emergency situation.”
Pictured: Pilot trapped as plane crashes on takeoff near City Airport in Eccles
It follows a police training exercise in May this year which simulated a terrorist attack at the Trafford Centre.
From around midnight on Monday 9 May, police dressed in riot gear swarmed into the Manchester shopping complex and carried out a simulated suicide bomb attack.
Pics & video: Trafford Centre ‘suicide bomber’ sees 800 volunteers join fake terror attack
Paul Bailey from the Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) at North West Ambulance Service said: “City Airport in Barton is one of our key locations, so the multi-agency exercise involved a difficult extrication which really tested how the HART team works with Greater Manchester Fire.
“Working together is critical for us to learn and see each agency’s skills and abilities.”
Station Manager Steve Jordan from GMFRS added: “The idea of this exercise is to test our resilience and partnership working to this type of incident and we were looking to see how effective we could be with a wide range of resources.
“The exercise has been successful and it is really wonderful to see everyone working really well together.”
