Airport-to-Airport Mutual Aid Programs (2012)

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56 The specific procedures and considerations for an airport or group of airports that coordinate an airport-to-airport mutual aid program will depend on the mission and functions of the program. However, there are some procedures and considerations that are fundamental to any program, and they are addressed in this chapter. Fundamental Concept The coordination and management of an airport-to-airport mutual aid program must always be done by an airport or group of airports. Any other arrangement will hinder the professional advantages of mutual aid, especially the necessary and precise matching of needs and assistance. Outside management of an airport-to-airport mutual aid program would violate the volunteerism core of the concept and, by adding a layer of control, slow the responses of the organization and distance it from understanding the urgency of need at an affected airport. Functions Maintaining or Sustaining a Mutual Aid Program The greatest challenge for the coordinating or lead airports of a mutual aid program is to maintain momentum and interest between activations. It is easy to have enthusiasm and aware- ness during activations, but it is more challenging to engender the same level of interest during the months or years between activations. A sample cycle for sustaining a mutual aid program is shown in Figure 6. In addition, the following are examples of tools and actions that the coordinating or lead airports can use in connection with maintaining or sustaining a mutual aid program: • Periodic meetings in association with the AAAE, ACI-NA, ALEAN, ARFF, or emergency management groups; • Independent meetings of representatives of the airports participating in a program, such as WESTDOG does annually; • Periodic conference calls among participating airports; • Test activations of communications systems and protocols; • Alert messages for all potential activations, such as SEADOG does for each designated hurricane; • Publication of lessons learned and best management practices; • Incorporation of airport-to-airport mutual aid program aspects in annual and triennial drills; and • Staff exchanges for airport orientation, exercise observation, or peer review. C h a p t e r 9 Procedures and Considerations for Coordinators of Aid

procedures and Considerations for Coordinators of aid 57 Preparedness to Activate Coordinating and lead airports need to maintain readiness to activate. Some of these actions have already been noted as useful for maintaining and sustaining mutual aid programs, but some are more closely related to the imminence of a hazard. Pre-Incident Tracking Coordinating and lead airports need to track developing situations that may culminate in a need for mutual aid, at least for the types of incidents for which lead times are generated by forecasters. Such incidents include hurricanes, severe winter storms, and floods. Sharing this information with the entire airport-to-airport mutual aid program and its allies is useful. Reaching Out to Potentially Affected Airports Although the basic premise of airport-to-airport mutual aid programs is the pull model rather than the push model, it is a legitimate function of coordinating and lead airports to reach out to potentially affected airports to remind them of the types of mutual aid available and the procedures for requesting aid. Precise Matching of Aid to Need Coordinating and lead airports need to be prepared to analyze assistance requests and aid offers in order to match them. This means that they need to have experts (typically operational, maintenance, facility, and electrical) available on short notice to evaluate requests and offers and make the matches. These experts can all be based at one coordinating airport or can be distributed among several lead airports. It is the function—not the location—of the experts that is essential. Staging of Aid Coordinating and lead airports need to estimate the potential duration and intensity of mutual aid and devise a schedule to stage assistance. Such staging will ensure continuous support to Figure 6. Sustaining a mutual aid program.

58 airport-to-airport Mutual aid programs the affected airport, provide overlap of departing and incoming aid teams, and protect sending airports from substantial absences of key personnel. Coordinating and lead airports need a tracking system for the aid teams they coordinate. Alerting Potential Volunteers Coordinating and lead airports need to have a system—preferably multiple systems—for alerting airports that may be able to send aid. The alerts should include basic information on the threat or need, timing concerns, and as much specific information as possible on specialty skills and equipment that may be needed. Ability to Manage Composite Teams Since airport-to-airport mutual aid programs may include a wide range of airport types and sizes and since most airports have very lean staffing levels, it is possible that some aid teams will include members from several airports. In such a case, the coordinating and lead airport should designate a team leader and call on individual volunteers to be members of the team. Maintenance of Communications between and during Activations An airport-to-airport mutual aid program should have agreed-upon communications systems and protocols and aid teams should carry communications equipment, as described in Chapter 8. The coordinating or lead airport will be the communications nexus during the lead-up to and throughout activation. Coordinators General Considerations The following are the five main considerations for choosing a coordinator: • Volunteerism; • Reliability; • Full support of senior management at the coordinating airport; • Location does not matter as long as it does not interfere with the coordination function; and • Use or non-use of specialized coordinators; either choice is workable. Functions Although a wide range of potential functions were introduced in the early chapters of this Guidebook, airport-to-airport mutual aid coordinators have a short list of major functions as now practiced by SEADOG and WESTDOG. Management of the Dispatch of Aid Teams Managing the dispatch of aid teams involves the recruitment of assistance, the matching of assistance requests and aid offers, and the staging of assistance. Maintenance of Communication The coordinators will be the authority on communications and the most likely source for determining alternative communications approaches if one of the pre-planned systems breaks down. One specific function of coordinators should be to preside at and set the agenda for conference calls.

procedures and Considerations for Coordinators of aid 59 Initial Evaluation The effectiveness of an airport-to-airport mutual aid program can be greatly enhanced if the coordinating and lead airport can dispatch a team of expert evaluators to assess the engineer- ing, structural, and operational damage and needs at an affected airport. This may be especially beneficial for smaller airports that do not have large internal staffs. SEADOG, for example, has pre-designed assessment teams that can deploy at short notice and provide detailed intelligence to the coordinator, who will use the information to guide decisions. Airport Operations, Maintenance, and Repair Airport operations, maintenance, and repair are the GA-related services that are needed to reconstitute a damaged airport or provide operational support to an airport stressed by unusual operations relating to a regional disaster; however, just because they are general fields does not mean that the precise matching of specific needs and specific skills, equipment, and parts is not needed when these general skills are applied to specialized airport systems. Many or even most electrical and mechanical systems become special when installed or operated on an airfield. This matching is a major function of the coordinator. ARFF The coordinator may want advisors for ARFF matters so that ARFF support can be matched with other needs in tandem, but separately, from airport operations, maintenance, and repair aid. Security and Law Enforcement Security and law enforcement functions are similar to functions for ARFF. A damaged airport may have a compromised security system and need assistance from the airport-to-airport mutual aid program for physical security operations. In addition, aid teams traveling with resources into a disaster area may need security. Logistics Although the primary responsibility for getting aid teams and resources to the affected airport belongs to the sending airport, the coordinator may need a logistics expert to help with arrange- ments. An example of this type of situation occurred during Hurricane Rita when flatbed trucks carrying equipment were stopped at state lines. Utilities During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, major issues at MSY required close cooperation with electrical and other utilities. The coordinator may want to have a utilities expert on call or send such an expert with the initial evaluation team or early aid teams. Communications Communications must be organized from at least the following three perspectives: by phase, by mode, and by purpose. Phase Routine Routine communications will normally be conducted by e-mail, but might also be accomplished via telephone and dedicated websites with a notification feature.

60 airport-to-airport Mutual aid programs Management during Alerts Communications during alerts will be conducted using the same methods as routine communications, but will be distinguished by message titles. Management during Activation E-mail and websites will continue to be used, but the primary communications method during activation will be by voice—either teleconference or radio. Mode Telephone Landlines and cell phones are probably the most likely initial communications mode, but may not be the most efficient as phone calls do not normally generate a written record of correspondence. E-mail E-mail will be the normal mode for communicating assistance requests, alerts, aid offers, notices of conference calls, and SITREPs. Dedicated Website Dedicated websites are emerging as the most powerful and efficient communications tool. These sites enable the visual tracking of airport status, aid teams, and resources. They can be used for any of the functions previously conducted by e-mail. WESTDOG, CARST, and SEADOG have dedicated websites that offer very different examples of a range of embedded services and functions. Social Media The tool of the future may be social media. Airport-to-airport mutual aid programs may wish to explore the use of social media tools for alerts, notifications, and tracking. Web-Based Collaborative Tools The Web-based collaborative tools that are used by many emergency management agencies, federal agencies, and some airports seem to have limited applicability to airport-to-airport mutual aid programs because of the many different systems used and the lack of such systems at many airports. Web-based collaborative tools for the coordination of emergency management at airports are currently being investigated under ACRP Project 04-12, “Integrating Web-Based Emergency Management Collaboration Tools into Airport Operations.” Multi-Party Teleconferencing Tools Multi-party teleconferencing (e.g., FAA Bridgeline, which has been used in the past by SEADOG) has been the most fundamental communications tool used by airport-to-airport mutual aid program communications, and it seems likely to remain so. Its primary virtues are ease of use, ease of access, and immediate dissemination of information. Its primary drawback is the unwieldiness of the effort needed to manage a call. The coordinators need to preside over these calls and set the agenda. Purpose All communications used by an airport-to-airport mutual aid program and its coordinator should be pre-formatted with templates to ensure completeness and clarity. The most important

procedures and Considerations for Coordinators of aid 61 template is for SITREPs. Appendix M sets forth the SITREP template used by WESTDOG. In addition, the airport-to-airport mutual aid program and its coordinator should establish a policy for SITREPs to address such issues as formats, frequency, originators, and distribution lists. Useful Model for Detailed Operations The WESTDOG operations manual provides detailed examples of the concepts presented in this chapter. It is reproduced in its entirety as Appendix B of this Guidebook and is available on the WESTDOG website (http://westdogairports.com/). In addition, it includes detailed checklists that have been extracted or adapted and repeated for all of the functions described in Chapters 7, 8, and 9 of this Guidebook.