Togo: Simulation or plane crash at Lomé’s Gnassingbé Eyadema International Airport?
The Gnassingbé Eyadema International Airport of Lomé (AIGE) was in turmoil at the beginning of this weekend due to a supposed plane crash resulting in two (02) deaths and thirty (30) serious injuries. Sirens were sounded and ambulances and other intervention vehicles were on the move in all directions as part of the third edition of the emergency plan exercise of the Gnassingbé Eyadema International Airport of Lomé, (EPULO) 2022.
A plane with 55 passengers on board, including thirty-three (33) men and eighteen (18) women, two (02) of whom were pregnant, four (04) children including two (02) babies and five (05) crew members, carrying chemical material, tried to land in emergency on runway 22 of Lomé airport, after the pilot lost control. Meanwhile, a fire broke out in the cockpit.
The plane crashed at 7:15 am, half a dozen meters outside the fence, with all its passengers and crew members. The toll was heavy: two (02) dead including the captain, thirty (30) seriously injured including the co-pilot, fifteen (15) slightly injured. At the crash site, there was scattered debris still on fire and smoke in places. The alarm was sounded at 7 h 18 min. Crisis situation, emergency intervention to save lives.
The whole area from the airport to the Exhibition and Trade Fair Centre in Togo 2000, which hosted the official opening of this year’s fair, was cordoned off to keep out the curious and to avoid crowds of people who could hamper rescue operations, but also onlookers who might be tempted to steal the belongings of the passengers involved in the accident, as often happens.
The fire brigade arrived and tried to extinguish the last embers. An advanced medical post (AMP) was quickly set up to treat the injured. In the tents that were quickly erected to accommodate them, the wounded, all bloody and with torn clothes, were moaning. Others were evacuated to the Hajj house next to the airport where an emergency care centre was set up, while others were transported in an alarming state to the Saint-Joseph, Biasa and Espérance clinics… The families who had been alerted flocked to the airport to obtain information.
With this setting, we thought we were in the right. However, this crash and all the commotion were just a simulation to train the different bodies of the airport to be able to manage a crisis situation. This exercise is part of a recommendation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) prescribing exercises of this kind. This year, Togo was at the 3rd edition of its EPULO, after the exercises of 2015 and 2018.
Miss OLY
