Qatar Airways has conducted a planned emergency exercise this month to rehearse its emergency management programme and response functions.
The annual exercise is part of the airline’s commitment to ensuring that its staff members are prepared to handle an emergency situation in a timely and effective manner, according to a statement.
The emergency exercise activated and deployed a number of the airline’s key crisis elements, including the Qatar Airways group emergency control centre, integrated operations centre, deployed response group, special assistance team and media enquiry centre.
An international emergency scenario was devised by the airline’s Group Safety and Security department, including pre-defined challenges that were injected throughout the exercise.
The use of satellite communications tools and emergency communications platforms, together with simulated television news broadcasts and social media reports of the emergency, were created and viewed by staff in the group emergency control centre to give the activity an additional aspect of realism and immediacy.
Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar al-Baker, who led the exercise, said: “Qatar Airways has built a culture and workforce that is committed to safety, with good practice at the core of everything we do across the airline.
“Regularly and thoroughly exercising our emergency responses is an opportunity for Qatar Airways to perform and enhance its day-to-day preparatory activities, strengthen critical professional skills and incorporate lessons learned from across the aviation industry.”
Qatar Airways’ emergency management programme includes a corporate emergency response plan, an automated crisis management and casualty tracking system, a dedicated group emergency control centre, group emergency management team, emergency telephone enquiry centre, special assistance centre, an emergency website, a media enquiries centre, a media operations centre and a deployed response group that includes special assistance team members (humanitarian support programme).
If activated, the deployed response group would be despatched to the emergency site using a dedicated relief aircraft to provide additional support to local staff, responding agencies and authorities on the ground. All members of the emergency management structure receive regular training.