An Emergency Plan Sitting On A Shelf Is Like No Emergency Plan At All

A well-practiced plan is the only plan there is.
Sept. 25, 2012
2 min read

As I participated in another regularly scheduled emergency drill at Logan Airport this past week, I thought of how important these drills are in the event of a real emergency.

I have worked in disaster response and emergency planning for decades and it’s clear to me that a well-practiced plan is simply the only way to coordinate an appropriate response in the event of an actual emergency, especially when multiple public and private entities are involved.

How practiced is your well-practiced plan?

Watching Massport’s drill also got me thinking of how many companies I’ve worked with that prepare elaborate emergency plans – only to never quite find the time to practice them. So often, the only time a plan actually gets used for many companies is during an actual emergency.

And that’s if anyone can even find the plan in the chaos that emergencies tend to create. But even if the plan is found, consider these points:

  • How often have the emergency contact numbers changed?
  • Are your contacts up to date? Perhaps they’ve taken different jobs within the company or are gone from the company altogether. Do you know?

So if you think it’s important to your business to have an emergency plan, you need to make the time at least annually to review that plan and practice it with your employees.

About the Author

John Goglia

John Goglia has 40+ years experience in the aviation industry. He was the first NTSB member to hold an FAA aircraft mechanic's certificate. He can be reached at [email protected].

John Goglia is an independent aviation safety consultant and Adjunct Professor at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology and regular monthly columnist for four aviation trade publications. He was an airline mechanic for more than 30 years. He has co-authored two text books (Safety Management Systems in Aviation, Ashgate Publishing 2009 and Implementation of Safety Management Systems in Aviation, Ashgate Publishing 2011).

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