Mass Casualty Incident Preparedness for Airport Emergencies: Report From an Aeroplane Crash Simulation at Guglielmo Marconi Airport, Bologna (Italy)

This article reports on a full-scale simulation conducted at Bologna International Airport, Italy, in October 2022 to help emergency medical services learn to handle airport mass casualty incidents. The authors note that, while rare, airport emergencies are potentially catastrophic so disaster preparedness is essential. This two-and-a-half hour crash simulation exercise featured a full-size airplane crash that triggered the airport’s emergency plan, including the use of supplementary teams (ambulances, medical cars, and other emergency vehicles). The simulation included 27 “patients” who were evaluated by EMS; the analysis of the performance found that triage assessment was correct for 81.48% of the simulated casualties. Of the remaining patients, 11.11% were over-triaged and 7.41% were under-triaged. All patients were transported to the hospital and the authors note that having a trauma center within 6 kilometers of the airport facilitated this transportation. They conclude by reiterating some of the lessons learned from this simulation, including ways to improve communication within the different agencies and plans to move ambulances within the airport runway structure without needing guidance from airport personnel.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2023.239
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/19357893
• Authors:
  • Flauto, Alfonso
  • Marcis, Lucia
  • Pallavicini, Paolo
  • Calzolari, Federico
  • Nanetti, Tommaso
  • Scopelliti, Antonino Giovanni
  • Fabbri, Martina
  • Cremonini, Stefano
  • Imbriaco, Guglielmo
• Publication Date: 2024

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 5p
• Serial:
  • Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
  • Volume: 18
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • ISSN: 1935-7893
  • EISSN: 1938-744X
  • Serial URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/disaster-medicine-and-public-health-preparedness

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air transportation crashes; Airport operations; Ambulances; Casualties; Crash victim simulation; Emergency medical services
• Identifier Terms: Bologna Guglielmo Marconi International Airport
• Geographic Terms: Bologna (Italy)
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01912504
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 20 2024 10:11AM