Tomorrow’s exercise, called “Flying High”  has been planned by Council staff, the NSW Police, RFS, SES, Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Ambulance and other agencies.   The exercise will begin at 10am and continue through to 1pm at Taree Airport.  

Teams will be tested to judge their capacity and the level of their responsiveness to a mock aircraft incident.   All committees in the North Coast District are required to perform exercises regularly as part of the Emergency Management Committee action plan. 

“Council staff will be tested on our emergency procedures at Taree Airport,” said Darryl Boye, Council’s Local Emergency Management Officer.   “In addition to tests of our communications and how we coordinate our command and control functions, the actual on-the-ground functional support and how we respond to the incident will be reviewed.”

The in-depth exercise will also review how situation reports are issued, and how Council and other agencies respond to the challenges of the incident.   

Taree airport at Cundletown spreads across 75 hectares with six daily passenger flights on weekdays.  There are also between 5 and 20 light aircraft movements per day as well as Careflight, Westpac, Childflight, Air Ambulance, and Police in both fixed wing and helicopter.  A 20,000 litre water tank located on the southern side of the terminal building is used for filling fire fighting aircraft.

Two of the eleven on-site hangars are used for manufacture of aircraft, with one for skydiving purposes and the rest for aircraft storage, and the airport also hosts the Manning River Aero Club.

The Exercise Administration Contact is Council’s Local Emergency Management Officer, Darryl Boye, on 6592 5399, or

lemo@gtcc.nsw.gov.au

lemo@gtcc.nsw.gov.au

lemo@gtcc.nsw.gov.au