June 2024
As part of its commitment to continuous improvement, Moorabbin Airport Corporation (MAC) engaged International Resilience Group (IRG) to design and facilitate its 2024 Aerodrome Emergency Plan (AEP) exercise, involving emergency service organisations and key stakeholders.
Participants were presented with a scenario involving an incident on airport. The exercise ran as a simulation in real-time, as IRG provided participants with a series of ‘injects’ of information as they would receive it. The injects are designed to be as realistic as possible, with only the information that would be received at any point provided to participants, covering everything from the initial Triple Zero call to the day’s imagined weather conditions.
As participants received the information, they responded as they would in a real-life scenario, explaining how and why to the other services; this approach ensures that each stakeholder and service understands what the other is doing in the event of a real-world scenario, and helps to identify any gaps in lines of communication. Elsewhere, other participants responded physically, with multiple emergency appliances on-site, testing response times, vehicle access and evacuation plans.
General Manager of Moorabbin Airport, Travis Brown, said MAC is committed to preparing and exercising their employees to enhance their ability to respond and recover from an incident.
“It is a significant opportunity to bring together these groups in a controlled environment and assess the effectiveness of our AEP. It’s never about right or wrong, it’s about ensuring a mutual understanding between MAC employees, external agencies and stakeholders in a potential emergency and the associated roles that would be undertaken to form the response.”
He said the exercise aims and objectives were achieved with a number of key learning outcomes being identified, and the ability of all stakeholders to deal with the scenario(s) presented was well understood.
“We understand the commitment it takes for stakeholders to give us half a day out of their jobs and lives; there is a lot of work and energy that goes into this day, but exercises like this are critical to our operation and assessing the effectiveness of our emergency response plan.”
This exercise was undertaken as a Moorabbin Airport Risk Management activity through the validation of the emergency management strategies, procedures, personnel and processes.
About Moorabbin Airport
Moorabbin Airport is Australia’s leading general aviation flight training airport located in the south-east of Melbourne. Spanning 294 hectares, the Airport is Australia’s second busiest airbase and is home to a range of general aviation activities including flying training, flight charter, aviation maintenance, as well as general and recreation aviation operations. Supporting the viability of aviation activities, the Airport also has a thriving non-aviation commercial centre, including Kingston Central Plaza and a Direct Factory Outlet (DFO), as well as an array of retailer and hospitality providers which provide employment for many local residents in the City of Kingston. Located on the north and south-eastern perimeter of the precinct, Chifley Business Park is home to leading industrial facilities and commercial offices for business customers.
Committed to safely building a sustainable future for aviation, business and local community, Moorabbin Airport was awarded ‘Metro Airport of the Year’ in 2022 by the Australian Airports Association (AAA) and is recognised as a State Significant site, a major employer and a centre for community activity in one of the fastest growing regions in Victoria.
About Moorabbin Airport Corporation and Goodman Group
Privately owned and funded, Moorabbin Airport Corporation Ltd (MAC) purchased a long-term lease on the Moorabbin Airport site from the Commonwealth Government in 1998. MAC’s role is to maintain and develop the Airport infrastructure and the provision of a safe airport for all users. MAC is wholly owned by Goodman Group, the largest industrial property group listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: GMG) and one of the largest listed specialist investment managers of industrial property and business space globally.
About The Goodman Foundation
The Goodman Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Goodman Group. The Foundation focusses on building resilient, inclusive and sustainable urban communities, providing people with the opportunity to reach their full potential. We invest in organisations to enable transformation and scale so that we get to the heart of an issue to make long-term sustainable change.