6 days ago
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More than 100 stakeholder agencies and implicit 3,000 participants from crossed the aviation ecosystem took portion successful the full-scale exigency preparedness drill, ‘Challenger 2026’, astatine the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) connected Thursday.
The exercise, conducted successful enactment with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) requirements and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines, simulated a analyzable exigency script to measure the airport’s preparedness, effect systems, and multi-agency coordination.
Participants included hose staff, airdrome stakeholders, authorities authorities specified arsenic the State Disaster Management Authority, District Disaster Management Authority, hospitals, subject and paramilitary agencies,and civilian nine organisations.
The Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) said the workout assessed captious effect mechanisms, including exigency alert activation, firefighting and rescue operations, triage management, mobilisation of stakeholder exigency effect resources, postulation management, and greenish corridor facilitation for accelerated infirmary transfers.
It besides evaluated the effectiveness of connection protocols and coordination timelines among participating agencies successful a high-pressure operating environment.
BIAL said that a cardinal item of this year’s variation was that the workout was conducted alongside unrecorded airdrome operations connected the 2nd runway, making Challenger 2026 1 of the astir operationally intensive exigency drills undertaken astatine KIA.
This year’s workout besides introduced respective caller operational and technology-led interventions. KIA deployed AI-enabled effect enactment tools to assistance exigency teams entree captious effect protocols.
A real-time incidental reporting and tracking level was besides integrated to fortify situational consciousness and coordination crossed teams. Additionally, this year’s variation included helicopter-based casualty evacuation by the Indian Air Force to a backstage infirmary facility. The workout besides marked the information of the Indian Red Cross Society and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), further strengthening the collaborative exigency effect framework.
“Challenger 2026 was designed to rigorously measure these capabilities astatine standard portion airdrome operations continued successful parallel. The workout reflects the corporate committedness of each participating agencies towards strengthening resilience, refining effect frameworks, and ensuring that information preparedness continues to germinate alongside the maturation of modern aviation,” Hari Marar, managing manager and CEO, BIAL said.
