Incident Command Training

Tabletop Exercises...Airports

Airport security and emergency response elements contend with highly specialized training and incident management challenges. Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting units are charged with managing and mitigating airfield and airport incidents, large and small.

Incidents of major proportion will require the inclusion of additional community response assets.

The events and climate of emergency response since September 11, 2001 have demonstrated a need to "institutionalize" the way all responders and receivers must interact. The Incident Command System (ICS) is an on-scene management program that has been mandated by the Department of Homeland Defense. Airport managers and ARFF professionals need to understand the big picture as well as their rules and responsibilities. They must know who they report to (e.g., incident commander, liaison officer, operations chief, staging area manager) in order to get assignments and to ensure well-coordinated and effective performance.

ARFF units must train to the standards of ICS. Understanding ICS and rehearsing the skills to use it properly will improve the capabilities of every provider. ARFF teams will develop skill sets required in a major emergency to better serve their communities, their customers, and their shareholders.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires all FAR Part 139 airports certificate holders to conduct a full-scale emergency exercise every three years and review the emergency plan (or conduct tabletop exercises) annually to maintain the skill levels of each agency involved in aircraft rescue efforts. Airport operations managers agree that the full-scale emergency exercise and the tabletop exercise provide exceptional tools to evaluate staff response and allow all interoperative agencies and shareholders to evaluate their response to airport critical incidents.

Exercises, too, function as opportunities to practice techniques and teamwork efforts so that in the event of a real incident, each agency is able to perform and work together towards successful response. Command School TTX is a leading nationally recognized developer and facilitator of emergency preparedness and response tabletop exercises. The tabletop exercise prepares airport operations teams to respond to critical incidents by providing the basic technical and conceptual skill practice necessary to take control, supervise and manage fast breaking critical incidents.

Command School TTX facilitators are incident-tested, cross-discipline professionals who will help develop the skills that are applicable to most critical incidents.

In any of the all-hazard incidents to which your teams may have to respond, they will have to interact and communicate with other emergency responders and community shareholders. Hands-on response exercising in accordance with the principles of ICS and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) helps achieve a successful incident outcome.

Introduce the unique Command School tabletop exercise facilitation into your annual emergency preparedness calendar. Preparedness learning is enhanced with unique hands-on features and a scale replica of an airport. Your team will learn to respond to all-hazards ... before it happens!

THE ICS-DRIVEN TABLETOP EXERCISE EXPERIENCE WILL ENABLE YOUR STAFF TO: