Why weren’t people in the terminal directed to the DEDICATED EMERGENCY EXITS that feed down into the undercroft which then leads out to Enterprise House?
Incoming arriving
Were you there? Did you have possession of the facts about the incident as they unfolded? Did you have to make split second decisions about the safety of thousands of people?? Didn't think so.
Everything these days seems to get blown up out of all proportion - just deal with it in a non-panicked, sensible, non knee jerk way.
The implication that this was a knee jerk reaction and panicked is outrageous and a slur on the duty staff involved. Have you ever been involved in the control of the initial stages of an incident like this? Don't think so.
Sitting at your comfy keyboard reading all sorts of things which may or may not be correct well after the event is a wonderful thing.
When you have something sensible to say come back and tell us.
I would assume that there will be a comprehensive revue afterwards, as happens after any significant incident. Every organisation has an emergency plan written in back rooms, which rarely survives the activities of real people in the real world. It can't be helped by the outsourcing of so many activities to third parties so that there's unlikely to be a unified chain of command.
InOban - in order to gain a modicum of knowledge of Emergency Planning at UK airfields have a look at this document - starting at page 36. You will find out the sort of organisations that should be involved and an outline of chains of command.
http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/...%20FEB2017.pdf
Written in back rooms no doubt, but in full consultation with users and regularly tested including the chains of command and revised to take into account lessons learnt from previous exercises and incidents. It's part of the airfield licensing and safety management system without which an airfield is not allowed to operate, so your implication that it is effectively not fit for purpose is hugely wide of the mark.
Having been involved in writing some Airport Emergency Plans, the detail will show actions by certain named posts and communication links for all the categories of incidents that could occur. It is a framework as each and every incident will be unique and it therefore allows flexibility to respond to the circumstances of each incident. It will be reviewed after every incident and exercise to see where things didn't go to plan and how things may be improved.
I'm thoroughly p*ssed off at the implications that this was handled in a non-professional way. It's just some nasty speculation from so called know-it-alls who have never been involved in airport terminal operations sitting in an armchair and pontificating. But I guess that's the "fun" with the interweb these days - everybody is an instant expert.
And of course hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Mistakes may have been made, but that will be for the review meeting to uncover and put right. If you were there, then I hope you will contribute your views to the relevant terminal staff at STN to help them. If not, let the professionals get on with their work.