KLIA Air Disaster Simulation

Thanks to the Red Crescent Society of Malaysia and the MMU Cyberjaya Chapter I was able to experience an simulated event that I would never want to encounter. The 21 RC members including myself was whisked off from campus around 6.30 and arrived at the KLIA Fire Department’s multipurpose hall a little shortly after 7. After a brief briefing and a nomnomnom nice simple dinner session, we put on some makeup(some of it pretty gruesome) to simulate the injuries and waited to be brought to the end of the runway where the simulation will happen. It was about 9.20pm.

After being brought over to the location by space shuttle bus we sat and waited for the simulation to begin. And we waited….and waited….and waited some more….until 10.15pm sitting on very long grass and ‘lalangs’ when they finally start by lighting up the fire in a few huge pits that they dug up earlier and placing fuel and burnable trash accelerates. At first it was such a small fire most of us were really turned off and felt quite disappointed with what we saw until 30 seconds later that is when it mutated into this humongous bonfire that is at least 12 meters high and producing such heat that I could feel it from where I was standing about 50 meters away. With the amount of smoke produced I was wondering if they would get summoned for open burning. Oh and I believe it caught the attention of a few passengers on a plane getting ready for take off. lols.

So after the fire brigade came with their specialized vehicles and put out the fire with foam we (all 120 volunteers) were then ordered to go into the ‘danger’ area and act out our roles. I was suppose to be an injured passenger with severe burns and fracture to his left arm. So as we lied there on the grass shouting, screaming and some were moaning in very weird tones for help, the rescues arrive to assess the situation and to coordinate the rescue so that we could be taken out of the area to safety.

Finally it was my turn and this is how it turned out:

*a KLIA emergency rescue team member knelt next to me*

Rescuer A: Apa masalahnya encik? (What is the problem sir?)

Me (in character): MY ARM!!! IT HURTS!!!! THE PAIN!!!!! HELP ME!!!!

Rescuer A: Ok, bolehkah encik jalan? (Ok, can you walk sir?)

Me (in character): PLEASE HELP ME!!! MY ARM HURTS!!!! *using my right hand to grab left arm*

*Rescuer B, C and D arrives. (all KLIA emergency rescue team)*

Rescuer B: Ok, jadi apa yang kita nak buat? (Ok, so what should we do?)

Rescuer A: Ermm…..bagi dia ‘neck brace’. (Give him a neck brace.)

Me (to self): Huh? *pretending to be crying due to plain”

Rescuer B: Jadi tangan dia macamana? (So how about his arm?)

Rescuer A: Buat ’sling’. (Make a sling.)

*a 3 second silence…*

Rescuer B: Ehehe….mcam mana nak buat ’sling’? Saya dah lupa lah. (Ehehe…how do I make a sling again? I forgot.)

Me (to self):…………………………HUH???? WTF????? OMG?????!!!!! WTF??? WTF??? WTF???!!!!! *still crying btw*

….he proceeded to tied a piece of bandage on my arm….very lamely and unprofessionally.

I was brought on a stretcher after that towards the safety area where all passengers are taken to out of the danger zone. At the safe zome I was attended to a young female malay doctor who gave me a ‘red card’ after I have gave her many hints about my actual condition. Disappointing. With that I continued to stare at the dark cloudy sky for another 40 minutes with the neckbrace on and on the cold hard ground. I was so bored I contemplated on life and all its meanings assuming I even know what I was doing.

Anyways, I was later brought to an emergency treatment tent…if I was really in the red I guess I would have probably died by now. So now I had to stare at a blue ceiling and get a proper treatment bandage and all. But as I was lying there an ambulance trolley hit me on the head and due to the neck brace my whole body moved. Yes…it hurts. After some frantic apologies by the paramedic who pushed the damn thing and some automatic cursing and swearing by me and few nurses came over to put on a proper bandage on my supposedly damaged arm. Using a scoop they scooped my up onto one of the incoming trolleys for a ride I will never forget…on an ambulance.

On the contrary of being fun, its was frightening and bumpy and frightening. If I had a heart problem I would have suffered a heart attack and died. If I’m really a patient in critical I would have died due to shock. But regardless of how it was, that was the only way to save any patient and its speed. Lots and lots of it.

Save me dammit!

At the makeshift hospital, I was again attended to by a doctor who I had a friendly chat with and who complained of a lack of sleep and of work in the morning. In other word nothing fancy happened at the ‘hospital’ only that I meet a few Red Cresent members from the Petaling Jaya chapter who was vonlunteering to help out with the rescue operation. Finally, after a few complains with the doctors my status was downgraded to yellow and I was able to remove the darn neckbrace.

I had a sore neck, a headache, extreme tiredness and fatique at the end of the day. Not to mention I had to drive back home and bath to remove the makeup and stuff before sleeping. I finally slept about 5am. All this hard work for pain, boredom, and a no confidence vote for our rescue teams. In the end, I so don’t wanna be in any accident of any sorts in Malaysia.

I got dissapointed by KLIA and all I was was this stupid armband