害羞草研究所淓xercise. Exercise. Bomb threat at the Kelowna airport. Bomb threat at the Kelowna airport.害羞草研究所�

With those words broadcast around the city just before 9 a.m. Thursday, a safety preparedness exercise of explosive proportions was launched behind the airport.

害羞草研究所淥peration Collaborate害羞草研究所� brought BC Ambulance, Kelowna, Lake Country and Ellison fire departments, emergency health services and UBC Okanagan together to fight a common foe, an imaginary 害羞草研究所渄isgruntled passenger.害羞草研究所�

Working in tandem they dealt with smoke, fire and actors playing hostages, a corpse and the aforementioned problematic passenger.

害羞草研究所淭he scenario started with a disgruntled passenger, then there害羞草研究所檚 a security component and it escalated from that security component to smoke coming from the airplane,害羞草研究所� said Sam Samaddar, airport director, explaining the scene presented to reporters who had gathered to watch the exercise.

害羞草研究所淭here害羞草研究所檚 an internal threat component, which is part of the exercise and there will be a fire component as the smoke builds into something much bigger.害羞草研究所�

Basically a passenger starts revealing himself as a threat, people are injured, the plane is shipped over an isolation area where a fire lights up the sky and firefighters knock it down. Someone dies, although nobody was told from what.

It was very dramatic, and highlighted how well equipped the city is to contain an airport threat quickly and efficiently.

害羞草研究所淲e don害羞草研究所檛 want to contaminate the rest of the populations or bring a threat to other aircraft coming or arriving,害羞草研究所� said Samaddar, who noted that much of the event was built from fragments of real world incidents.

While the exercise was built on foreign scenarios,  Kelowna isn害羞草研究所檛 immune to issues of this kind.

害羞草研究所淭hat was a real incident where an individual, because he was late for his airplane, decided to call in a bomb threat,害羞草研究所� he said.

害羞草研究所淲e didn害羞草研究所檛 know who the individual was, but we activated our emergency procedures plan and contacted the RCMP.害羞草研究所�

Typically with these kinds of incidents, Samaddar said, you don害羞草研究所檛 actually find out the person behind it, but in this case the airport was up and running within three hours of the threat.

害羞草研究所淭hrough our systems 害羞草研究所� our closed circuit TV, our telephone logging devices 害羞草研究所� we were able to track and apprehend that individual.害羞草研究所�

When all was said and done, Samaddar said the event went well, although a debriefing to get a real grasp on department performance was set to happen after news crews departed.

These large scale emergency exercises are conducted every four years to test YLW害羞草研究所檚 airport emergency response plan.