By Cheryl Jahn

Airport Authority aims to make PG premie

Airport Authority aims to make PG top training site

Nov 5, 2024 | 2:37 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – There is a giant tube, similar to a culvert, on a site behind the Prince George Airport. It is designed to represent the fuselage of a plane that has crashed.

“The stated purpose for an emergency response at the airport is to provide egress for any survivors of an aircraft disaster,” explains Gordon Duke, President and CEO of the Prince George Airport Authority. “When the other responding agents, and agencies get on site, they are going to be taking over. It’s up to us as an airport to provide that initial response.”

And that’s what the firefighters at the Prince George Airport train to do on a regular basis. And the training done at the Prince George Airport is like none other because it is the closest thing to a real emergency.

“The facility we have here provides an experience that really allows them to develop their skill set. It is a live fire. We have a mock-up of an aircraft fuselage. We have a mock-up of aircraft wheel and brakes, which is often where an aircraft fire will start.”

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There are other training facilities in Canada. There is a simulator in Edmonton and another training site at Pearson International in Toronto. But most of these folks go to the US to train. The Prince George Airport Authority wants to make this training site the premiere site. But they need access to contaminated fuel. Fuel that will not be sold commercially.

The federal NDP’s Transport Critic, Taylor Bachrach, gives full grades to the idea of training in Northern BC.

“We have fire departments that are tasked with responding to incidents involving aircraft that are flying in difficult weather, in difficult conditions. A lot of our airports are quite small. And the more capacity that our fire departments have to respond to those emergencies, the safer our communities are going to be.”

If all the conditions are met, the timeline for turnaround could be quick.

“We could get that supply of contaminated fuel or surplus fuel, we would be up and running next spring.”

There is a regulatory requirement that every year every airport rescue firefighter has to fight a live fire.