According to the Emergency Preparedness and Contingency Planning Handbook prepared and published by the ACI (Airport Council International), the ERP, which stands for Emergency Response Plan, is a plan that covers several separate sets of the SOPs (standard operating procedures), plans, and checklists that cover different safety activities, especially those in emergency situations.
The ERP process
First, the service provider must develop, coordinate and maintain the Emergency Response Plan within the risk management plan, which ensures a smooth and efficient transition from normal operations to emergency operations, and return to the normal operations after the emergency situation is over.
ERP should integrate into the SMS of the organization. Moreover, it must adapt to the size, nature, and complexity of the activities of the relevant organizations.
ERP must ensure the following:
- timely, orderly, and efficient transition from normal operations to the operations in case of danger;
- Determination of Danger Responsibility;
- Determination of liability in the case of danger;
- The powers of key personnel determined to be responsible to carry out the activities contained in the plan;
- Coordination of efforts with the goal of removing the dangers within the emergency situation;
- Safe continuation of normal activities or return to normal operations as soon as possible.
ERP should define the responsibilities, roles, and actions of different bodies and persons involved in the procedures in emergency situations and any case of danger.
ERP Emergency Response Plan Process
An efficient ERP process should include the following:
- Communicating with the stakeholders;
- Establishing the context for making the analysis;
- Identifying the hazards;
- Analyzing the hazards;
- Evaluating the hazards;
- Assessing the risks;
- Mitigating the risks;
- Monitoring and reviewing the situation with the goal to continuously improve the emergency response plan.
Why you must have an ERP?
So, Emergency Response Plan is the basis one refers to in case of an incident, accident, or hazard. Also, it is the key resource in cases of lawsuits or investigations.
Additionally, ERP is important because it provides a clear, specific, and straight-forward set of steps that an airport or an airline must do during or immediately after an accident. These steps are important as they protect many different stakeholders.
First of all, they protect human lives. This implies the passengers, the staff, and other people involved directly or indirectly into the incident.
Moreover, these steps protect the airline. They also protect the airport. The word “protection” here does not imply only physical protection, but also protection from liabilities.
The insurance companies analyze many different factors during the process of determining the premium for airlines or an airport. One of the key elements the insurance companies analyze is the Emergency Response Plan.
Why is that so?
Simply put, the ERP reflects the prior preparation and emergency procedures of an organization in case of a sudden, unexpected hazard, or risky, dangerous situation or accident, or, in general, any kind of event that requires immediate steps or actions.
Consequently, ERP is extremely helpful as it provides the framework to the airline or the airport to decide on their steps in an emergency situation. This is crucial for the positive outcome of the critical situation as the lack of this framework would result in poor decisions in these situations of great distress.
The ERP of an airline or an airport must:
- Ensure and enable communication that facilitates the flow of information in both directions (top-down communication and down-top communication).
- Properly manage the media in order to protect the stakeholders from rumors.
- Provide adequate plans to help and save the injured.
- Provide adequate plans for the dead.
- Enable proper and thorough record management.
- Ensure the procedures required for conducting medical tests which imply drug tests and alcohol tests.
- Ensure proper humanitarian services.
Additional regulations of the ERP
According to the official document ICAO Annex 19, Appendix 2, namely in paragraph 1.4, ICAO prescribes that each aerodrome operator ought to ensure coordination of its own ERP with the ERPs of all organizations related to the aerodrome within the process of provision of its services and products, in its own SMS.
Coordination of activity planning in emergency situations (ERP)
The following issues must be addressed and checked:
- Whether the organization has the Emergency response plan or not
- Whether the ERP is suitable regarding the size and complexity of the organization or not
- If the organization ensured compliance of its ERP procedures with the ERP procedures of other organizations
- If the organization has established the process of informing the staff on coordination and alignment procedures.
The answers to these questions should be Yes. If so, the organization is actively working on developing and implementing a healthy and efficient ERP, which is of the utmost importance for aviation safety.
Other aspects of the ERP
One of the important aspects of ERP is dealing with hazardous material. This refers to the materials found in the facilities located in the vicinity of the airports. Also, ERP must address dealing with hazardous materials being transported near the airport and those materials with hazardous potential that are being used at the airports.
Stakeholders who must be involved in this part of the ERP process planning and implementation are airport officials, aircraft operators, as well as other prominent responsible authorities from the safety services.
The importance of the timely and thorough emergency response planning is reflected through the idea and principle that these precautionary measures must be addressed before they happen, not after.
In addition, these processes and activities must be a routine job. It is not a one-time process that has a start and ending point. It is a process that must be continuously repeated in order to eliminate all possible flaws, prepare detailed response plans and guidance materials, as well as communicate them to everyone who can be involved in these events in any way.
The Bottom Line
Emergency planning response is of the utmost importance for preventing, dealing with, and alleviating the consequences of hazardous and other risky and dangerous situations in different aviation sectors.
Each airport, air carrier, and organization must have its own ERP which has to be compliant with its SMS (Safety Management System).
Moreover, the EPRs of different aviation organizations, including airlines and airports, must be mutually compliant and in accordance with the ERPs of the higher instances.
As a result, a general ERP will be formed, recognized, communicated, and implemented. This significantly increases the safety level in the overall aviation sector.