This morning (Tuesday), the emergency aviation drill of the Israel Airports Authority and Israel’s emergency response system took place, with the participation of the Israel Airports Authority, Magen David Adom, the Israel Police, Fire and Rescue Services, the IDF, and other agencies.

The “Phoenix” emergency drill simulated a scenario of a plane crash involving 290 passengers. The Magen David Adom objective in the drill was to assess the activation of emergency protocols and the coordination between all the participating agencies, including the Israel Airports Authority, Israel Police, firefighters, and the IDF, to assess the mobilization of forces, rapid response to the scene, deployment of MDA staff and volunteers on-site, handling and rapid evacuation of casualties, and more.

The drill simulated a situation in which the MDA national dispatch center received a report from the control tower of a malfunction on a plane, which then crashed on the runway. As a result, Magen David Adom forces from the Yarkon, Ayalon, Dan, Sharon, Jerusalem, and Lachish regions were required to quickly reach Ben Gurion Airport to provide medical assistance and treatment to 290 simulated casualties from the plane.

The drill involved dozens of Magen David Adom emergency vehicles, including 8 mobile intensive care units, 20 life-support ambulances, 4 mass casualty incident stations, 2 jeep ambulances, medicycles, 2 regional command posts, the national command vehicle, a Unimog, an intensive care bus, and hundreds of paramedics, EMTs, and first aid providers.