On Thursday, March 6th from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. the Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE), along with several local mutual aid agencies and roughly 50 volunteers, will be participating in CAE’s AirSafe – a full-scale emergency training exercise that the airport plans and executes every three years.
During CAE’s AirSafe, members of the local community, passersby in the area or traveling passengers may see smoke or fire, multiple security officers, ambulances, or increased pedestrian traffic in and around the airport between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Please be advised that this is an airport-lead training exercise, and no one is in imminent danger.
The training event will be fully contained to the Columbia Metropolitan Airport campus, South Carolina Aeronautics hangar, CAE’s West Cargo apron and Metropolitan Drive off Enterprise Parkway.
The main terminal will not be used for this training exercise, nor will any commercial flights be impacted at any point throughout the day.
“This training allows our staff and the mutual aid agencies we partner with across the community to practice responding quickly and effectively in the event of a large-scale incident taking place on the airport campus,” said CAE’s Interim President & CEO and CFO, Gregg Hornsby. “This tri-annual event is taken very seriously. The local community and our passengers should travel with a peace of mind knowing that skilled professionals regularly train, both daily and in larger formats like this, to ensure appropriate response measures are known and executed properly as needed.”
For all questions regarding CAE’s AirSafe, please contact CAE’s Public Safety at 803.822.5025. For all general Columbia Metropolitan Airport questions, please contact K.Crafton@flycae.com or call 803.822.7856.