Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Jul 22/98) - If a plane crashes anywhere in Nunavut, rescue operations will be co-ordinated from an emergency centre in Rankin Inlet. And Kathleen Henderson will be there to make sure the rescue effort goes smoothly.

As manager of program development for the Arctic Airports division of transportation, Henderson oversees the Emergency Operation Centre, an integral location to co-ordinate a response during an airport emergency.

"It is one central location for agencies and individuals to co-ordinate, assist and respond to an accident or incident," says Henderson.

Rankin Inlet is slated to take over as the central operating location for airport emergency response from Yellowknife after division.

"With division, we are headquarters for Nunavut," she says. "Now we have the people with the expertise to do it."

But this expertise is coming with training that will enable Arctic Airports staff to co-ordinate rescue efforts among the airport, hamlet, health centre, as well as any other agency involved in the situation following an accident. Several employees from these types of organizations across Nunavut received disaster-type training in Rankin Inlet several weeks ago.

The training is part of establishing the Emergency Operation Centre and to ensure that it will function properly in the event of an emergency. The centre will be designed to deal with situations such as emergency landings, aircraft crashes, bomb threats, and hijacking.

"You hope for the best, but prepare for the worst," says Henderson.

Part of what the emergency centre is designed to do is to have the capability to allocate additional resources to an area if the need arises, she adds.

In addition to extra training for staff, Arctic Airports is in the process of establishing a 1-800 line to be used during emergencies associated with the airport.

In the coming weeks, staff will also carry pagers that will alert two on-call personnel of any emergency.

While Henderson admits the centre is in its early stages, she stresses that the personnel are equipped to deal with a situation if one were to occur.

"We have to start somewhere," she says. "We may not be able to do an emergency response like Toronto, but we can co-ordinate a response."