Aircraft Diversion Plan (Pandemic) & Tarmac Delay Contingency Plan

In response to the outbreak of the H1N1 Virus in 2009 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) urged all airport operators to update their existing Pandemic Flu Plans and to encourage those airport operators that did not already have Pandemic Flu Plans to develop such plans for their airport. Since we did not formally have a plan in place members of the airport authority (Police, Fire/Medical, Operations, and Public Relations) met with representatives of the CDC, TSA, South Carolina Aeronautics Commission, Lexington Medical Center, DHEC, Lexington and Richland County EMS, airport tenant business managers, CBP, and the FAA to develop a plan that would address “best practices” and guidelines for the airport to follow in order to protect the health and welfare of travelers, staff, the public, and to reduce the opportunities for the dissemination of communicable diseases by air. Also, during the course of these meetings the working group took the opportunity to formally develop a plan that would address how the airport would provide assistance to aircraft that divert for reasons other than pandemic in nature. Therefore, as a matter of convenience, the airport elected to incorporate both situations into one resource document, hence our Aircraft Diversion & Pandemic Operations Plan. In May of 2012, pursuant to the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, (H.R. 658); CAE submitted a Emergency Contingency Plan. The plan was recently approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation in July of 2012, and is now available for review.