Emergency drill at the Saanen airport

Every third year an emergency drill takes place at the Saanen airport. Recently this emergency drill took place. A mock scenario was made up of a Falcon 900 jet making an emergency landing due to mechanical problems. At the same time a smaller plane left the parking and was rolling onto the runway for take-off. The pilot overlooks the landing plane which results in a crash of the two. The pilot of the small planes dies and its passengers are badly injured. There is a significant fire on the Falcon, its two pilots and two passengers are not injured but can't leave the jet because of heavy smoke. Two persons, arriving to pick up their relatives, are trying to get to the burning jet to help.This was what made up the initial position for the emergency drill under the attendance of the Bundesamt für Zivilluftraumfahrt BAZL.

Toni Marti, squad leader at Saanen Airport, and the leader of the fire brigade, began their exersize with the removal of the people trapped in the Falcon. The injured people from the smaller plane are taken into the hands of the ambulance crew from Chateau d'Oex with the help of hands from the police. A Rega helicopter landed in order to take the injured into a central hospital

The judgment of the teams involved in the exersize at Saanen Airport was very positive. Everyone involved put 100% effort into the exercise and their commander, Toni Marti, points out that he can count on his team which is well trained. Every year he requires from his team to undergo 8 exercises of 2 hours each which is more that the BAZL requirement.