To fine tune your emergency response plan and personnel and to put everybody involved in a “safety mindset,” schedule a table top emergency exercise several weeks before your event. Define two or three emergencies of varying severity and then ask your key players to walk through their response IN DETAIL.
Who responds? How? Who is in charge? Who talks to the media? What happens if injuries overwhelm on-field capabilities to respond? Will there be a clear road off the airport grounds? Many air shows already conduct these table top emergency response exercises on an annual basis and find that it both prepares them for the upcoming air show and highlights potential problems and shortcomings in their emergency response plan.
Simulate standard, typical types of emergencies, but throw in at least one less obvious problem: a car fire in the parking lot, a bomb threat in the hangar area, a complicated and multi-car traffic accident on an ingress route to your show. Help your emergency response personnel recognize the many different forms and unexpected elements of the problems that your event may face on air show weekend.
