Extensive practice drill Alpha 9 successfully completed at Graz Airport
Today’s drill involved around 500 people dealing with a security situation (terrorism) on an aircraft.
Feldkirchen bei Graz, 15.10.2024: While previous years have mainly involved simulating disaster scenarios (e.g. a plane crash) with large-scale involvement of the fire and rescue services, this year the focus was on police work (the State Police Department and EKO Cobra) and on the communication between the authorities, emergency services, airline and airport.
Every two years international airports run practice drills to review their emergency planning. At Graz Airport, the management has always endeavoured to simulate as many different scenarios as possible so as to acquire a variety of findings.
HR Gerald Ortner, the State Police Director: “Today’s exercise at Graz Airport made it clear how essential close cooperation with all the emergency personnel is in the case of an emergency. Our topmost priority is to protect the population, and for this we have to be prepared for all eventualities. Exercises like this are a central element of our security strategy so that in an emergency our response is rapid and coordinated.”
Colonel Kurt Kornberger, Garrison Commander Cobra Süd: “The most serious forms of crime present highly complex deployment situations where the police and their partners face exceptional challenges. Here coordination and cooperation are essential to achieving more than the sum of the individual capacities, and thus guaranteeing an even higher level of security.”
A practice drill in this format is no small matter for the airport. Around 500 participants had to be coordinated while still maintaining ongoing flight operations.
Wolfgang Grimus, Managing Director of Graz Airport: “Today’s emergency exercise was carried out very successfully. In the next few weeks, we will go through the exercise with our partners to acquire new findings for the future. My heartfelt thanks go to our team and our partners who made this exercise possible on this scale in the first place!”
So that the exercise could be as realistic as possible, the organisers endeavoured to find an airline partner that was willing to make an aircraft available for an entire day as the object of the exercise.
Alexander Gsteu, Eurowings Base Captain Graz and Vienna: “As the largest airline on-site, we work successfully with Graz Airport. With security as the highest maxim in air transport, we were pleased to participate in this exercise within the scope of our close partnership.”
Exercise scenario
At lunchtime on 15.10.2024 a flight with the airline Neuroline is planned from Graz to Tomorrow Town. Once the passengers have boarded the aircraft, the unimaginable happens: several perpetrators hijack the aircraft.
As soon as the hijack is known, the airport raises the alarm with all the responsible security authorities and emergency organisations, as well as all internal offices. The Styrian state police headquarters, acting as the responsible security authority, takes over the operations staff and provides the official head of operations. Together with the Verhandlungsgruppe Süd negotiating unit and the EKO Cobra police tactical unit, negotiations take place with the perpetrators and further actions are taken. During the hijack there are injuries and some of the hijack victims are released. Finally it becomes ever more likely that the aircraft will be stormed …
Exercise participants:
In total around 500 people from the following authorities / emergency organisations / companies participated in the exercised:
Airline Eurowings
Provincial Government of Styria Special Department for Disaster Management and Defence, State Warning Centre and Communication Technology for Styria
Crisis Intervention department of the State of Styria, providing crisis intervention and psychosocial acute care
District Commission of Graz and surrounding area
State Police Headquarters, Styria
Süd LKA negotiating unit
Cobra taskforce
District Police Headquarters Graz and surrounding area
Border Police Department Graz Airport
Austrian Red Cross
District Fire Department Association Graz and surrounding area
