Training exercise sees emergency services rescue plane crash casualties from tree

Published: 23 Oct 2024

Fire, Ambulance and Police services from across Hertfordshire and the East of England took part in a pre-planned training exercise, which saw crews rescue trapped casualties from a tree, in Kings Langley, on Monday, 21 October.

Code-named 'Helo', the exercise saw responders from the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) and Hertfordshire Constabulary join firefighters from Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service to test their skills, knowledge, and training in a situation as close to a real-life experience as possible. Colleagues from Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Emergency Critical Care Scheme (BHECCS) and the Environment Agency also joined the exercise.

Together responders carried out a simulated operation which involved a light aircraft suspended in a tree, with multiple casualties. The aim of the exercise was to test the plans of all emergency services and their partners in responding to incidents together, in the event of an aviation incident.

During the exercise teams were assessed by moderators against Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) - a programme designed to ensure police, fire and rescue services and ambulance trusts work together when responding to a major multi-agency situation.

Graham Grover, Multi-Agency Training and Exercise Co-ordinator, Hertfordshire Local Resilience Forum said: "Across the county emergency service agencies and partner organisations regularly take part in training exercises to test our plans for handling a particular kind of incident and ensure that our teams have the skills and experience to respond to these events.

"This exercise was a challenging scenario and provided an opportunity for us to work together in a challenging scenario where a light aircraft had crashed in a rural location and two casualties were trapped in a tree."

Area Commander Andy Hall, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Services said: "Testing and exercising our skills in extreme situations allows is to ensure that we are always fully prepared to protect the public in any situation, no matter how rare. By working together, we can ensure every agency can test their own arrangements and learn from the experience."

"Exercises of this kind are critical, and I'm proud of how our emergency services worked together in order to share learnings. It's important that we can continuously improve the way we work together in order to provide the best emergency service response to our county."

Chief Inspector Andrew Palfreyman, Three Rivers Local Policing Command, said: "This exercise gave officers the opportunity to test themselves against the Joint Emergency Service Importability Principles (JESIP), in a major incident situation.

"We stood up a Tactical Command Group in our Major Incident Room at police headquarters, in Welwyn Garden City, with emergency service responders and partners joining and working together, talking through the issues, and sharing information in fast time.

"Hertfordshire Constabulary believe these exercises, provide an excellent training opportunity, working in partnership with other agencies to ensure we are prepared ahead of when we could be tested in the future."

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