Emergency aviation drill of the Israel Airports Authority and Israel's emergency response system took place, with the participation of the Israel Airports Authority, Magen David Adom, the Israel Police, Fire and Rescue Services, the IDF, and other agencies
The “Phoenix” emergency drill simulated a scenario of a plane crash involving 290 passengers. The Magen David Adom objective in the drill was to assess the activation of emergency protocols and the coordination between all the participating agencies, including the Israel Airports Authority, Israel Police, firefighters, and the IDF, to assess the mobilization of forces, rapid response to the scene, deployment of MDA staff and volunteers on-site, handling and rapid evacuation of casualties, and more.
The drill simulated a situation in which the MDA national dispatch center received a report from the control tower of a malfunction on a plane, which then crashed on the runway. As a result, Magen David Adom forces from the Yarkon, Ayalon, Dan, Sharon, Jerusalem, and Lachish regions were required to quickly reach Ben Gurion Airport to provide medical assistance and treatment to 290 simulated casualties from the plane.
The drill involved dozens of Magen David Adom emergency vehicles, including 8 mobile intensive care units, 20 life-support ambulances, 4 mass casualty incident stations, 2 jeep ambulances, medicycles, 2 regional command posts, the national command vehicle, a Unimog, an intensive care bus, and hundreds of paramedics, EMTs, and first aid providers.
Deputy Regional Director of the Dan Region, Avichay Hadad, who commanded the drill:
“Today we practiced handling a national-level event. This is a complex drill that will allow us to be fully prepared with all our forces in case an event of this type occurs at Israel’s main airport.”
MDA teams at Ben-Gurion Airport
Magen David Adom Director General, Eli Bin:
“In these days when Israel is at war, and Magen David Adom is busy responding to and arriving at every scene to treat casualties, we also practiced responding to a complex and challenging event.
This is an important drill, part of a regular training program designed to maintain the operational readiness of Magen David Adom, Israel’s national rescue organization. It aims to train our forces for an aviation disaster scenario at Ben Gurion Airport and to strengthen the critical cooperation for saving lives between various emergency agencies, including the Israel Police, the IDF, Fire Services, and the Israel Airports Authority.
I sincerely hope we will never have to use the knowledge and skills we gained today. But if, God forbid, we were required to do so, Magen David Adom is prepared to quickly dispatch dozens of rescue vehicles, including ambulances, mobile intensive care units, MDA medicycles, command vehicles, and more, in case of an emergency landing or, God forbid, a plane crash at Ben Gurion Airport, while continuing to provide medical assistance to routine events and be ready for additional emergencies.
There’s no doubt that drills like this help maintain the professional readiness of our teams.”
