In collaboration with key aviation and emergency response stakeholders, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has conducted a full-scale emergency simulation exercise at Entebbe International Airport aimed to test the airport’s readiness to respond to an emergency.
The two-hour exercise, activated at 1309 hours, involved the simulation of an East Sky Airlines (pseudo name) flight with 95 passengers and 5 crew on board presumed to have crashed adjacent to runway 12/30.
The exercise assumed that the Embraer 190 aircraft was cleared to land at Entebbe International Airport, on Friday, 23rd May, but crashed in an area adjacent to the airport’s perimeter fence and caught fire.
This sparked an emergency involving airport firefighters and other rescue agencies that were called in to ‘save lives.’ It was presumed that ’25 people lost their lives, 13 of the survivors were injured and 62 people were successfully rescued without injury.’ The ‘critically injured’ were rushed to hospitals in Entebbe and Kampala and the uninjured united with friends and families.
Speaking to the media after the exercise, the UCAA’s Director General, Fred Bamwesigye, commended the “Over 600 participants from 50 participating agencies, including airport stakeholders, medical service providers, security agencies, public and private fire-fighting service companies, among others, for taking part in the exercise aimed at testing the airport and stakeholders’ capacity to deal with any emergency.”
According to Eng. Ayub Sooma, the Director of Airports and Aviation Security, no flight was affected while carrying out the exercise.
“It was fortunate that this exercise happened on runway 1230, and this enables us to have our main active runway, 1735, active, and therefore not affecting the flights. So, the airport remained normal while this exercise was also going on. But it is not only that you saw that this exercise did not start on time, because also 1230, was to be used and so this kind of interference has come, but still it was managed and completed,” he confirmed.
The General Manager of Entebbe International Airport, Emmanuel Barungi, confirmed that while carrying out these exercises, they involve other ministries like the Ministry of Health because the budgets that have to address issues regarding some issues like ambulances, and hospitals, among others, are housed in those ministries.
The exercise, which is held once every two years was last held in 2023. It tests inter-agency coordination, assesses incident command, evaluates emergency medical services, and measures collaboration in high-stress conditions, among others.
It is a mandatory requirement for international Airports of countries that are contracting member States of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to conduct a full-scale emergency exercise every two years.
Meanwhile, the latest traffic statistics through Entebbe International Airport indicate an increase in the April 2025 performance in terms of passenger and cargo traffic.
“In April 2025, Entebbe Airport facilitated 93,194 arrivals and 92,272 departures, a total of 185,466 international passengers, which is an average of 6,182 passengers per day compared to an average of 5,490 per day recorded in April 2024. The April 2025 figure is higher than the April 2024 figure by 20,761 passengers,” the UCAA’s Director General said.
About cargo, Bamwesigye noted that imports were 2,088 metric tons and exports were 4,010 metric tons, a total of 6,098 metric tons in April 2025 compared to the total of 5,721 metric tons of cargo in April 2024.
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