A Delegation from the United Arab Emirates, chaired by Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Director General of Central Operations, visited the British Airways Emergency Operations Center (BA EOC) of Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom. The delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Justice, federal and local courts and prosecutions and Etisalat, as well as officers from the Police Operations General Department, the Security Information Department and the ICT Department.
Kathy Davies, Business Resilience Executive at British Airways, briefed the delegation on the functions, abilities and features of the BA EOC teams.
She said that the center has been established to deal with any emergency at British Airways, involving passengers or employees, across the world. She explained the major components of the EOC, namely; the Operational Crisis Incident Centre (OCIC) and the Emergency Procedure Incident Centre (EPIC).
According to Davies, the center can also start using rescue planes and deploy the special emergency teams (REACH).
The OCIC includes representatives from all concerned entities including British Airways, the police and others.
“Identifying and distributing tasks and missions were achieved clearly through applicable systems and programs, as all possibilities are preplanned. We organize regular trainings on task assigning to determine indicators and challenges for all concerned entities” she said. Moreover, she indicated that the center was called several times to respond to airplane emergencies; to close airspace due to volcanic ash in 2010; and to deal with the company’s employees’ strikes.
Davies added: “EPIC focuses more on coordinating humanitarian response to any crisis. It organizes work through a global network of call centers, each capable of cooperating to respond to crisis anywhere in the world. This network based on clear, strong operations and technology systems and programs, to collect and analyze information, such as WebEOC system, used to control, monitor and register response to any crisis.”
The delegation was also briefed on the operational capability and efficiency of the British Airways Emergency Operations Center (BA EOC).