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It was exactly 10.00a.m on Thursday, March 26, when news of a disaster filtered in. A passenger plane was said to have crashed within the local wing of the Abuja airport.
Immediately, the atmosphere became tense. As expected, conflicting blaring of sirens greeted the entire aerodrome as emergency relief agencies maneuvered their ways to the scene of the accident.

In less than 20 minutes, amidst anxiety, over 20 agencies and organs of government concerned with emergency deployment thronged the scene of the crash. Boldly inscribed on the reflective jackets of the over 100 personnel deployed to the scene of the accident were acronyms like NEMA, FAAN, NP, FRSC, NA, NV, AIB, FMH NRC, among others.

Meanwhile, palpable smoke had by now engulfed the crashed plane. And despite a distance from the spot of the accident, which was few meters away from the taxiway, cries and yelling of victims resonated as the rescue agencies swarm around the plane.

From the flanks of the open runway in the aerodrome, media men and sympathizers had watched with intense excitement as the various agencies took their positions in the rescue mission. At a point, everyone began to fidget while hoping that the efforts of the relief agencies would make positive impact this time.
According to an observer who pleaded anonymous, “many Nigerians have lost their lives due to lack of timely and adequate relief efforts in cases of disaster like this.”

The sad memories of how several lives were lost in past plane crashes that occurred in different parts of the country still remain fresh. In 2005 alone, more than 200 died in three separate plane crashes- 117 died in a Bellview plane that crashed in Ogun State shortly after take-off from Lagos; a fiery crash landing of a Sosoliso Dc-9 killed 107 people including 72 pupils of Loyola Jesuit College. And in the same year, a Beechcraft 200 Executive jet crashed in Kaduna, killing its two occupants.
Observers watched Officials of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) as well as that of the Nigeria Red Cross were seen stretching out bloodied victims from the plane. While the security officials waded off intruders from getting too close to the scene.

It was however impressive to note that contrary to the age-long tradition of fire fighters not responding promptly in emergency situations, they were quite on time to join in the mission.
After about an hour of rescue mission, the Abuja airport public relations officer Mr. I Itua in an emotion-laden voice announced that 10 people were confirmed dead while 16 people sustained life threatened injuries out of the 125 passengers on board..

Itua further said that the injured passengers have been immediately moved to nearby hospital for proper medical attention, while some have also been moved to the National Hospital in town.
On the cause of the crash, he said he could only confirm that 15 minutes to landing time, the pilot of the plane made a distress call to the control tower, but could not confirm the actual cause of the malfunction.
But then, it was soothing to realize that the plane crash, the attendant casualties and the commando-style responses from the various relief agencies were all part of a simulation exercise carried out by NEMA to determine the level of preparedness and responsiveness to emergency situations in Abuja.

The whole thing was not real. NEMA had coordinated the activities of about 20 relief agencies in a comprehensive simulation of a distressed plane, which crashed few minutes before landing, and resulting in a number of deaths, and seriously wounded passengers.
Speaking after the mock testing, Director-General of NEMA, Air Vice-Marshal Mohammed Audu-Bida (rtd), said that the exercise was part of effort to improve on the coordination among emergency relief agencies in the country.

“There are many reasons why we decided to embark on the simulation. Aside to manage and coordinate response effort, it was to assess our ability to keep stakeholders and public informed of response activities,” he said.
The DG promised that NEMA would ensure that such mock testing would be carried out quarterly, adding that the next exercise would be done on impromptu basis.
Although Mohammed commended the entire exercise, but admitted there were still pockets of lapses especially in the time lag deployed to the rescue mission. He observed that the entire operation was rowdy.

“There are quite a lot of areas we need to work on as far as emergency response is concern. We are talking about five minutes’ reaction time. No matter the state of the aircraft, rescue mission should be deployed less than five minutes after which the plane may explode.
“Besides, the evacuation process was not also impressive. I had wanted to see a situation where the different agencies would be a lot more organize. It only proves that there are a many areas we need to work on,” said he.

According to one of the participants, the media relations officer of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Mr. Tunji Oketunbi, the exercise was an eye-opener on the lapses in the emergency relief sector.
He noted: “Based on several reports, Nigeria is notorious in deploying and responding to emergency situation. And this is as a result of our unprepared nature. With exercises like this, all relief agencies would know when it is supposed to react and what role to play in a very orderly manner.”
An observer, Mr. Segun Afolayan posited that carrying out the exercise was not enough, but going further in ensuring that the gap between a mock test scenario and real life situation should be effectively bridged.

According to him, “three days after a simulation on a road accident, an exact life scenario played out, but only for the same agencies that perfectly executed their roles in the simulation to be found wanting in the real situation.

“NEMA should not stop at this mock test. There should be periodic evaluation and compliant testing for the agencies. The problems with emergency relief agencies have always been trading of blames and war of supremacy among themselves,” Afolayan said.