A major emergency exercise will take place today (31st July) to test the response to an aircraft accident in the Manchester Airport area.
Manchester Airport says the exercise will take place in the Bollin Valley area and will see a large-scale response from the Airport and Emergency Services from both Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
There will be a large number of emergency service vehicles and personnel in and around the surrounding area during the exercise which may alarm the public.
Operations Director Rad Taylor said: “The purpose of this exercise is to practice and showcase a coordinated multi-agency response to an aircraft incident in challenging and difficult environments.
“The exercise presents a challenge we hope we would never have to experience, but it is important for us to regularly train and be confident with the plans and procedures in place to deal with an emergency.
“As we want the exercise to be as real as possible for the emergency services involved, we don’t want to give too much about the exercise scenario away, however we wanted to let residents and passengers know beforehand and reassure them that there is no cause for concern.
“A full emergency response will take place to act out the scenario, however additional resources will be in place to provide a full response, should anything happen in ‘real life’ that requires a response.”
The airport says that flights will operate as normal during the exercise and the airport will maintain operational throughout the day.
