Full-scale emergency exercise conducted at KIA

Key points

• More than 100 stakeholder agencies and over 3,000 participants from across the aviation ecosystem took part in the full-scale emergency preparedness drill, ‘Challenger 2026’, at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Thursday.
• The exercise, conducted in line with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) requirements and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines, simulated a complex emergency scenario to evaluate the airport’s preparedness, response systems, and multi-agency coordination.
• Participants included airline staff, airport stakeholders, government authorities such as the State Disaster Management Authority, District Disaster Management Authority, hospitals, military and paramilitary agencies,and civil society organisations.
• The Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) said the exercise assessed critical response mechanisms, including emergency alert activation, firefighting and rescue operations, triage management, mobilisation of stakeholder emergency response resources, traffic management, and green corridor facilitation for rapid hospital transfers.
• It also evaluated the effectiveness of communication protocols and coordination timelines among participating agencies in a high-pressure...