makes perfect in Continental crisis By Matthew Taylor Card games might not seem the way to prepare for an emergency landing like last Thursday's turbulence-hit Continental flight. But Aviation Security Officer Roger Brydon knows that they made a huge difference to the way Bermuda airport coped so well with the deluge of passengers from diverted US-Puerto Rico plane. He explains: "The emergency services and people at the Airport get together regularly for table top sessions where we pull cards out with a crisis scenario which people have to respond to. "We might throw in a curve ball to see how they respond. For example we may hand one to the Police reporting that fuel was spilling into Castle Harbour. "They would have to tell us what they should do -- for instance alert the Marine Police and Agriculture and Fisheries and get booms across to stop it from spreading.'' Mr. Brydon knows a thing or two about coping with emergencies, having worked around the Airport for the Police for the best part of the last 20 years before retiring in 1998 to take his present post. And following a debriefing session on Wednesday Mr. Brydon paid tribute to the way the services handled last week's crisis. He told The Royal Gazette : "We worked well together, there was excellent co-operation and we can say we did a good job. "We didn't get much warning -- the air traffic control first heard about it at 3.39 and the plane landed at 4.04 by which time the first ambulance was already in place from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.'' Even the spot where the plane stopped was part of the master plan hammered out in Mr. Brydon's table top practice sessions. "There are eight pads but we chose pad seven as it's nearest the gates and has access to the roundabouts,'' he said. "The problem is you never know how many casualties you've got until you get amongst them so you have to be able to cope if the information is wrong. "The problem with that Continental flight was that the crew themselves were injured so they weren't in a good position to tell us. We were told that there were ten injured passengers but in realty there were 58 to 60. "In the early 1990s we had a similar emergency when a US-Puerto Rico flight hit turbulence and touched down here. We were told there were six people with neck injuries -- it turned out that there were 28 people needing hospital treatment -- nine with broken necks. "You have to be prepared for more than you've been told or you'll just end up playing catch up. But it's a balancing act, you can't bring in all your resources or you might leave yourself exposed elsewhere on the Island.'' Mr. Brydon said it was vital to ensure that the hospital was warned about what to expect and that they weren't overloaded with injured passengers.

He explains: "We needed to deliver the passengers to KEMH in a staggered, uniform fashion, which we did.'' First priority after touchdown were the seriously injured who were given immediate attention while still on or near the plane. The others were split into two groups -- those with minor injuries who were treated at a hastily set up triage centre and those who didn't need attention were taken to one of the lounges. Despite the regular meetings and the occasional full-scale emergency practice sessions held by the emergency services, airlines and other agencies there is always room for improvisation.

"There were a lot of neck injuries that Thursday so we started using blankets -- folded up and taped together they make a very good neck brace.'' Taxis were also pressed into service to ferry those with minor injuries to KEMH. Mr.

Brydon said the key to the success of Thursday's emergency was communication.

All the major players from the emergency services were put together in one area. They then take major decisions together under the overall control of the fire service -- instructions were then relayed to those on the Airport tarmac by radio link and cell phones. And communication with injured passengers is also crucial. "A lot of flights overfly Bermuda on the way to somewhere else, often to Spanish-speaking countries in South America so we make sure we know about all the Spanish speakers working around the airport. "This can be a life-saver. If you have a child who is injured but can't tell you what is wrong then it's a big problem. "The Airport is like a big village and people come forward to help.'' Despite the smoothness of Thursday's operation which didn't even disrupt other flights, Mr. Brydon knows that luck can play a massive part. "If it had been around noon there would have many more people in the terminal complicating things. And there was a big rain cloud threatening to burst -- meaning we would have had to get people under cover.'' No doubt those two factors will be on the cards next time Mr. Brydon hosts his