SAR & ALERTING 8

AIRPORT EMERGENCY PLAN

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• Under ICAO Standards and Recommended
Practices (SARPs); each Airport Authority is
responsible for establishing emergency plans
and procedures to deal with ALL unusual
conditions and for coordinating the plan with
surrounding community authorities, to
minimise the effects of an emergency in order
to save lives and maintaining acft operations
(ref ICAO Doc 9137 part 7)
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• The Nadi and Nausori Airport Emergency Plan
(AEP) sets out the actions to coordinate the
response of different aerodrome services and
the surrounding community to provide
assistance in an acft emergency.

• A current copy of the plan shall be made

available at the Control Towers
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• The Chairman of the Emergency Operations
Center (EOC) shall ensure that the AEP conforms
with the ICAO Doc 9137 Part 7 in the ATS related
areas of the Doc.

• The ATS unit on the aerodrome shall be

responsible for notification of responsible
personnel following a request from a pilot or
when situations requires emergency actions
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AERODROME EMERGENCY PHASES

a) Local Standby

b) Full Emergency

c) Aircraft Accident
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Local Standby
• When an approaching acft is known or
suspected to have developed some defect but
the problem is such that it would not involve
any serious difficulty in effecting a safe landing
• (Declaration of the Local Standby Phase will
bring ALL emergency services to a state of
readiness but will remain at their post)
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Full Emergency
• When an approaching acft is, or is suspected
to be having problem that there is a danger of
an accident
• (Declaration of the Full Emergency will bring
ALL services; both on the aerodrome and in
the community to rendezvous point at the
aerodrome. Hospitals will also be alerted to
prepare for possible reception of victims)
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Aircraft Accident
• When an aircraft accident has occurred on or
in the vicinity of the aerodrome

(Declaration of the Aircraft Accident Phase will

result in ALL the relevant emergency services
being activated immediately and proceed to
the crash site)
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• When an emergency occurs in-flight, the pilot
is responsible for advising the ATS unit and
nominating the desired state of readiness of
the aerodrome emergency services

• Should a pilot be unable to nominate, then

the ATS unit will assess and declare the
appropriate aerodrome emergency phase
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LOCAL STANDBY examples
a) A fire warning light is indicated but no
apparent sign of fire
b) Loss of power (less than 50%)
c) Radio Comms Failure
d) Electric/Hydraulic failure
e) Cracked/broken windscreen
f) Significant hail/ice/lightning strikes
g) Birdstrike
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Full Emergency examples
a) Engine shutdown (for two engine acft)
b) Fire in flight (extinguished or otherwise)
c) Acft unable to maintain altitude
d) Pilot incapacitation (single pilot)
e) Landing gear malfunction (actual or
suspected)
f) Birdstrike
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The Aerodrome Emergency Services shall be
alerted in accordance with the Aerodrome
Emergency Plan (AEP) and information passed
shall include:
a) Phase declared b) Type of acft (c/s)
c) Location of RWY to be usedd) ETA
e) Nature of emergency (reason)
f) POB g) Dangerous goods on board (if known)
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Cancellation of the emergency following a

successful landing shall be carried out in
accordance with the AEP
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SPECIFIC PROCEDURES in AEP
Notification
• Notification of an emergency will be in
accordance with the flow chart; however ALL
emergencies should be notified to the Control
Tower where notification to other emergency
services will be initiated.
• It is important that ATC initiates these
messages to ensure everyone is included
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Emergency Message Format
To ensure standardisation in ALL messages sent out
to the emergency services ATC will note down
messages in the format laid down below.
“ THIS IS _____________ (Name of Airport)
____________ (Emergency Phase)
Aircraft Type _________ Callsign __________
Description of Emergency ________________
Location __________(Emergency site) OR
GRID MAP Location ___________ (Emergency site)
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Description of Emergency
Give as much information that is available on
the emergency and should include;
a) Reason for emergency
b) Destination and ETA (for acft in flight)
c) POB
d) RWY to be used for landing
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EXAMPLE

“THIS IS NADI AIRPORT – AIRCRAFT

ACCIDENT – AIRCRAFT TYPE BOEING 737 –
CALLSIGN SPADE AIRLINES 524 – CRASHED
THRESHOLD RWY 02 – LOCATION WAILOALOA
ROAD/GRID REFERENCE M4 – PERSONS ON
BOARD 82”
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EXAMPLE

“THIS IS NADI AIRPORT – AIRCRAFT LOCAL

STANDBY – AIRCRAFT TYPE BOEING 747 –
CALLSIGN SPADE AIRLINES 525 – ONE ENGINE
SHUTDOWN DUE LOSS OF HYDRAULIC
PRESSURE, LANDING RWY 02 ETA 1054–
PERSONS ON BOARD 292”
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EXAMPLE

“THIS IS NADI AIRPORT – AIRCRAFT FULL

EMERGENCY – AIRCRAFT TYPE AIRBUS 320 –
CALLSIGN SPADE AIRLINES 449 – ONE ENGINE
SHUTDOWN DUE BIRDSTRIKE, LANDING RWY
02 ETA 0842– PERSONS ON BOARD 130”
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False Emergency Call by ATC (18 January 2007)
Today 18 January 2007, Nadi Air Traffic Control
erroneously declared a full emergency alert for an
Air Pacific flight. At 10:20am Air Pacific flight FJ231
a Boeing 737-700 en route from Nadi to Tarawa
with 87 customers on board reported the cockpit
systems indication suggested that one of the
three electrical generators on board the aircraft
had a defect. 
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The generator was shutdown as a precaution.
Although the aircraft had two other generators
functioning normally the Captain decided to
return the aircraft to Nadi because the
availability of spare parts and maintenance
facilities in Tarawa was minimal in the event
the generator required replacement or repairs.
The decision to return to Nadi was not safety
related, merely operationally prudent.
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As is routine, the Captain advised Fiji Air Traffic
Control that he was returning to Nadi and twice
confirmed no emergency existed. For totally
unknown reasons Air Traffic Control declared a full
emergency landing alert into Nadi.  The captain of
the aircraft was notified of this at 11:40am and he
in turn radioed back to Air Traffic Control to again
inform them that no emergency had or did exist
and that the landing was expected to be normal. 
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After some debate between the captain of the
aircraft and the duty controller the matter was
referred to the Air Traffic Control Manager who
subsequently downgraded the flight watch to
normal standby.
The aircraft arrived and landed normally in Nadi
at 12:36pm. The generator was examined and
found to be faulty.
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  Rectification has occurred and the aircraft will
again depart from Nadi to Tarawa at 5:30am on 19
January.  It could not return on 18 January as
Tarawa has no night landing facilities. Air Pacific
will take this matter up with Air Traffic Control in
an endeavor to understand why basic protocols
were ignored and how such a serious error could
be made by Air Traffic Control staff.
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YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO DETERMINE THE

TYPE OF AERODROME EMERGENCY PHASE TO
USE BUT JUST ENSURE THAT WHATEVER PHASE
YOU SELECT WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN THE END.
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QUESTION ?