The Emergency Response Plan

As part of your Safety Management System (SMS), your aviation operation will likely be required to have an emergency response plan (ERP). A few examples of ERPs are an Airport Emergency Plan (AEP), Contingency Plans (ATC), and an Emergency Response Plan (Air Operators). An ERP outlines in writing what should be done after an accident, and who is responsible for each action. Although the ERP will be briefly described in your SMS manual, the actual, comprehensive ERP will likely be referenced externally from the SMS manual.

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The ERP will outline the multitude of tasks that will need to be done (and possibly coordinated with various external agencies) in the event of an accident, incident, or emergency. Depending on your specific type of operation, a formalized ERP may be needed for the following types of events (non-exhaustive, typical examples):

• Aircraft accident at airport
• Aircraft accident at location other than airport (enroute)
• Bomb threat
• Hazmat/toxic spill
• Infectious disease outbreak
• Electrical/grid failure
• Communication outage
• IT outage?
• Geopolitical events (i.e., war zones)
• Geophysical/climatic events (i.e., earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, massive flooding)

While the above list is non-exhaustive, it does provide a general idea of some of the events that can, and do, occur during the course of daily aviation operations. Fortunately, some of these events occur very infrequently, such as airplane crashes, while other events occur on a more frequent basis such as IT, geopolitical, and severe weather events.

An ERP is a structured process that ensures the transition from normal—to emergency—and back to normal operations. The ERP will specify the key personnel assigned to the process, along with their roles, responsibilities, and delegation of authority. In addition to these internal processes, many emergencies will also require assistance and coordination from outside agencies. These outside agencies may include medical crews, hazmat teams, police, coast guard, and even the military. Therefore, when full, simulated ERP exercises are conducted, these outside agencies should be included.

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During some of the SMS audits I have conducted, I have seen some pretty interesting things as far as ERPs go. For the sake of brevity, I will give just a couple of interesting findings: I asked a large airport to show me their ERP >>> they didn’t have one. I asked an airline to describe exactly how they would activate their ERP if one of their aircraft crashed in a remote jungle in Brazil >>> they hadn’t thought of that scenario, despite the fact that their routes overfly remote jungles on a daily basis. And one of my favorites was when an airline security manager asked me to go into one of their physical ticket offices and make a mock bomb threat to see what the response would be >>> the response from the ticket agent was utter confusion and shock. The poor ticket agent had no idea what to do or what to say. There was no formal procedure in place to handle bomb threats made outside of the airport environment!

In summary, an ERP is a critical component of your SMS. Key personnel with roles and responsibilities in the ERP need to be trained properly and understand how to handle an emergency situation calmly and collectively. If they do not know their roles and responsibilities in the ERP then you can rest assured chaos will ensue and things will get ugly very quickly. Let’s say there is a crash just after takeoff. Do you have a Crisis Center ready to go? Who will need to man the crisis center and what actions will they be responsible for? Keep in mind that you are going to be dealing with victims’ families who want answers right now, ambulance-chasing lawyers, internal and external investigators, the news media, social media (these days, social media is rife with nearly real-time, rampant speculation, replete with pictures and videos of the scene long before the investigators arrive), and don’t forget brand reputation and damage control!

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Don’t be one those aviation operations that believes it doesn’t need an ERP because accidents are rare and “someone else will take care of it.” If you don’t have an ERP and there is a significant safety event, it’s going to be too late for you. Things will spiral out of control quickly and relentlessly. You can’t just whip up an ERP once an accident happens. You are going to have a really hard time!

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So, whatever type of aviation operation you have, make sure you have an ERP! Make sure it is tested on a regular basis, with at least tabletop exercises and, if applicable, a fully coordinated, full-scale, inter-agency mock accident every few years. The goal is to learn from the exercise results. What went right? What went wrong? Do we need to make improvements? Oh, and one more very important thing, make sure the ERP is reviewed and verified at least annually to ensure that the information for the people with roles and responsibilities in the ERP is up-to-date and accurate, including all contact information. It wouldn’t be a good thing if the ERP is terribly outdated, you have an accident, and at that moment you find out that half the people with key roles in the ERP are no longer with the company! It happens. I’ve seen it.

Dr. Bob Baron conducts aviation safety training, consulting, and program implementation for aviation operators on a global basis. Sensitive and knowledgeable about various cultures, Dr. Baron uses his 36+ years of academic and practical experience to assist aviation organizations in their pursuit of safety and quality excellence. He has extensive experience working with developing nations and island countries. He also provides training and consulting to some of the largest airlines and aircraft manufacturers in the world, as well as civil aviation authorities and accident investigation bureaus.

Dr. Baron is also available as a paid speaker at your company's safety events or conferences. Not just limited to aviation, Dr. Baron can also present to any high-risk industry that has a genuine interest in improving its safety culture and/or safety management processes. To request a speaking engagement, you can contact Dr. Baron by clicking here.

Dr. Baron’s company, The Aviation Consulting Group LLC, provides numerous training, consulting, and auditing services. For more information, click here.