St. John's International Airport Authority holding emergency exercise to test response plans

If you are near the St. John's International Airport this morning (Wednesday) and notice amped-up emergency response, it's a training excercise.

The airport authority (SJIAA), along with Eastern Health, St. John’s Regional Fire Department (SJRFD), teh Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and St. John Ambulance, will conduct a security threat and major aircraft emergency exercise beginning at 8:30 a.m. and concluding around noon.

There will be a significant presence of emergency response vehicles and activity in the airport terminal building and in the vicinity of Torbay Road and RCAF Road for the duration of the exercise. Local traffic will not be affected, the authority said in a news release. Airport and aircraft operations will also not be impacted as a result of this exercise.

A large-scale emergency exercise such as this is conducted every two years to test the emergency response plan of the airport authority, and its co-ordination with local and regional emergency response partners.