(ARABNEWS.COM) The Kingdom’s airline industry is one of the safest in the world, according to Global Aviation records. This includes the safety and security measures on the ground at the country’s airports and the record of its national carrier, Saudi Arabian Airlines.

There are 35 airports in the Kingdom, which includes four international airports — King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah, King Fahd International Airport (KFIA) in Dammam and Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madinah, apart from 15 domestic, seven regional and nine private airports.

Fayek Al-Oraij, chief manager of fire and rescue services at KKIA, said: “Major airports in Saudi Arabia are well prepared to manage unforeseen emergencies especially those pertaining to runway disasters.”

Saudi Arabia remains the largest air travel market in the Middle East and has maintained its position as one of the safest aviation destinations in the world.

In terms of passenger traffic, KAIA in Jeddah is the busiest airport in Saudi Arabia. In terms of area, KFIA in Dammam is the largest airport and KKIA in Riyadh has the longest runway at 13,796 feet.

In accordance with the standards of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), the operations and fire rescue services teams at major airports in Saudi Arabia undergo regular training.

The training school at KKIA conducts quarterly internal mock drills, which includes air and ground ambulances, fire fighters, police, doctors and paramedics.

The annual mock drills conducted on a larger scale includes the participation of the Civil Defense, Ministry of Health, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, King Abdul Aziz Medical City, Red Crescent, Medivac and internal fire and rescue operations teams.

There are similar operations at the other major airports around the country, in collaboration with regional and domestic airbases.

“As major incidents pose special management challenges, the disaster program is designed to provide incident management skills,” said Al-Oraij.

Despite the good safety record, there have been major accidents in Saudi Arabian history. In 2010, a German Lufthansa cargo craft caught fire while airborne and was subjected to an emergency landing at KKIA in Riyadh.

The aircraft crash-landed and broke into two halves, with an intense fire inside the aircraft. “The fire and rescue workers at KKIA immediately rushed to manage the emergency and the pilot and co-pilot were safely evacuated,” said Roshan, a paramedic at KKIA who was part of the rescue operation. The German media lauded the Kingdom’s rescue teams for their efforts.

In another incident, on Aug. 19, 1980, Saudi Arabian Airlines flight 163, flying from Riyadh to Jeddah, became the world’s deadliest aviation accident that did not involve a crash. After a fire broke out in the rear cargo hold, the aircraft was reverted to Riyadh. The crew performed a successful emergency landing. However, the aircraft was not evacuated because the heavy doors were stuck and all 301 passengers and crew died in the fire.

There was also a major mid-air collision on Nov. 12, 1996, of Saudi Airlines flight 763 and Kazakhstan Airlines flight 1907 in Indian airspace, which killed all 349 passengers on board both flights. The accident was caused by the Kazakhstan pilot flying too low.

However, aviation safety has improved considerably with modern technological advances. A case in point is the crash landing of the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport in California on July 6, where 305 out of 307 passengers survived.

Waleed Yusef, a Saudi FRS trainer at KKIA, said the airport has instituted top emergency management training for it workers. These emergency management services are available at all local airports and includes ambulances, and firefighting, hospital and police teams in accordance with international airport standards.

Yusef said that officials are advised to show professionalism and composure and are trained to use “every single second in the process of swift management to tackle critical circumstances.”

Doctors, paramedics and health staff are trained to handle injuries involving aviation disasters. Tanweer Alam, a Ministry of Health doctor at KKIA, said: “We always wish there are no incidents but if a situation arises, the efficient and trained teams are ready to handle the critical situations.”

Alam said accidents involve a number of severe injuries including burns, broken bones, head injuries, spinal cord injuries, internal injuries, internal bleeding and organ damage. He said many others suffer from various bruises, cuts and scrapes.

He said it was important to deal with critically injured patients first. “Triage is performed to categorize the patients according to the extent of their injuries and priority of treatment required.”

According to statistics released at the Arabian Travel Market recently, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the leading countries in the Middle East in terms of air traffic volume while Qatar demonstrates the strongest growth.

SOURCE ARABNEWS.COM