A joint exercise involving not just the airport fire brigade but members of the island’s Civil Defence volunteers, and the coastguard at the weekend aimed to find out how well resources could cope with a major disaster at the airport.

The scenario involved a simulated crash between an aeroplane coming in to land and a service vehicle obstructing the runway.

Among the 150 people supposedly on board the plane were a mixture of walking wounded, who were taken back to the cover of the airport, and seriously injured, who gave the volunteers a chance to test their first aid skills.

Volunteer casualties were each issued with a card detailing their injuries and symptoms.

’It was a good exercise,’ said one of the volunteers.

’It seemed to go quite well and it’s probably valuable to do it. I can definitely see things I might do differently next time, though.