At busy events, effective communication is crucial to ensure the safety of spectators and exhibitors is prioritised and protected. After tragic events at the Shoreham Airshow in 2015 Nick Hawkins, pictured, Managing Director of Everbridge EMEA, discusses how critical communications platforms can help organising bodies in their safety and security procedures.
In August 2015, 11 people were killed and a further 16 injured when a vintage jet aircraft crashed during an acrobatic display at Shoreham Airshow. The deadliest airshow accident in the UK for more than six decades resulted in a review of safety and security procedures at British airshows.
Britain has a long history of airshows dating from the early 20th century; the most popular is Farnborough International Airshow (FIA). For the organisers of this high-footfall attraction, implementing effective safety measures and managing the risks associated with the event is a serious challenge. This is highlighted by the fact that since 2010, there have been 60 major incidents reported at airshows around the world. For organisers it is important that they are prepared to handle any eventuality. To achieve this, they can implement the latest technology to manage all emergency communications and help ensure the safe and efficient delivery of the event. Critical communications platforms not only enable organisers to send out emergency notifications and make people aware of an incident, but also ensure the lines of communication between organisers and visitors remain open in any situation.
Communication
Critical communications platforms automate the coordination of emergency teams which is often a time-intensive process, meaning that resources can be deployed more effectively and efficiently than before. This reduces emergency response times and ensures the safety of everyone involved is better protected. In the aftermath of Shoreham, the roads around the airfield were closed in both directions leaving thousands of spectators stranded. A critical communications platform would have allowed incident response teams to harness the power of geo-location data and send out notifications to everyone in the area warning of the danger, providing actions to guide them to the nearest safe-zone and notified on-duty security staff of the need to perform an evacuation of the area to prevent further risk from secondary fires and debris.
The emergency notifications can be delivered via one of the many routes available—such as SMS, email, text-to-speech warnings, social media alerts and app notifications—and continue to be sent until an acknowledgement was received. Responses to the notifications provide emergency services and security officials with clear visibility of the incident, streamlining the process of understanding which people were at risk and what resources were available to manage the crisis. The platform can then be used to facilitate a controlled shut-down of the site, providing alternative routes of travel for spectators heading home whilst allowing the emergency services adequate space to perform their jobs.
Technology in action
Farnborough International Limited (FIL) – the organising body responsible for the safe delivery of FIA – chose to implement the Everbridge software at its 2016 event.
The critical communications platform co-ordinated the numerous agencies in the incident control room (including emergency services) and enabled organisers to alert visitors to any incidents, keeping them updated on fast-changing situations and informing them of any actions they should take.
When extreme weather caused severe on-site flooding, safety officials were forced to act quickly. To help protect visitors, exhibitors and employees the Everbridge platform was used to enable emergency services to communicate and co-ordinate an effective response. By having a single platform to record every aspect of the incident, organisers had a detailed activity log that could be used by emergency services to investigate any serious incidents post-event. Using the platform as part of the command and control tool set, incident response teams were able to perform a managed shut down of the affected exhibition halls. This involved moving 57,000 people off-site and to safety in less than two hours – keeping them away from any potentially hazardous electrical wires that had been damaged by the influx of water.
This is a significant example of why critical communications technology is an important solution in event planning and security – the flooding at this year’s show could have been an extremely dangerous situation if a co-ordinated evacuation had not taken place immediately.
Future
Airshows are still an incredibly popular event for aviation enthusiasts and tourists and a vital source of revenue for suppliers and manufacturers. Organisers have a duty of care to spectators, exhibitioners and its performers to minimise risk and ensure the show is delivered safely. Critical communications technology not only helps limit the ‘noise’ in the control room but enables effective communication between event officials and visitors, helping to ensure the event runs as smoothly and safely as possible. Only by learning the lessons of the tragic events at Shoreham will organisers be best placed to handle the challenges of the future.
