The Heliport at the Macau Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal held a full-scale emergency exercise last night (January 26) to test and enhance the coordinated response capabilities of all involved units in accidents. The exercise simulated a helicopter carrying 2 crew members and 2 passengers suffering a tail rotor drive failure after take-off from the heliport, resulting in loss of power and a forced heavy landing on the main pad, with some parts detaching from the helicopter and scattering on the ground. The 2 crew members were uninjured, but the 2 passengers respectively sustained serious injuries and fell into a coma.

After the accident, the heliport’s flight operations control centre immediately activated emergency response procedures. All involved entities were notified and arrived at the scene without delay. With coordination and support from Macao Customs, the heliport staff and the passengers were safely evacuated to the assembly point. The Fire Services Bureau dispatched firefighters with rescue equipment to the site and successfully extracted the injured passengers from the helicopter, simulating initial treatment and transfer to the hospital.

The exercise began at 8 pm last night and was concluded within one hour, involving around 100 participants and 7 vehicles including fire trucks and ambulances. The entire process went smoothly, fully demonstrating the efficiency of cross-departmental collaboration. The exercise was organized by East Asia Airlines Limited, the operator of the Macau Heliport, with participating government entities including Macao Customs, Public Security Police Force, Fire Services Bureau, Health Bureau, Maritime and Water Bureau, and Civil Aviation Authority.