FOR MORE INFORMATION

Katie Spill­man, PR Counsel 

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport 

(727) 236‑0284 or katies@​themooreagency.​com

FOR IMME­DI­ATE RELEASE 

Feb­ru­ary 17, 2023 

NORTH­WEST FLORI­DA BEACH­ES INTER­NA­TION­AL AIR­PORT TO CON­DUCT FAA REQUIRED LIVE EMER­GENCY DRILL EXERCISE 

Region­al emer­gency response agen­cies to join ECP in exer­cis­ing pro­ce­dures need­ed in the event of a real emergency 

PANA­MA CITY, Fla. (Feb­ru­ary 17, 2023) – North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) will con­duct a Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) required Live Emer­gency Drill Exer­cise on Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 22, 2023. Prepa­ra­tion for the drill will begin at 8:00 a.m., with the drill com­menc­ing at 10 a.m. Emer­gency response agen­cies from Bay Coun­ty, Pana­ma City, Pana­ma City Beach, Spring­field, Call­away, Red Cross, Sal­va­tion Army and oth­er near­by emer­gency response agen­cies will join Air­port per­son­nel in exer­cis­ing pro­ce­dures need­ed in the event of an actu­al emer­gency. Live stu­dent actors from J. R. Arnold and North Bay Haven High Schools will par­tic­i­pate by play­ing the role of pas­sen­gers involved in an emer­gency. The stu­dent actors help to cre­ate a real­is­tic envi­ron­ment dur­ing the train­ing for first respon­ders. Air­port offi­cials antic­i­pate the drill to be com­plet­ed by 1:00 p.m.

The increased lev­el of activ­i­ty by emer­gency vehi­cles and the use of a live fire burn prop at the Air­port should not alarm air trav­el­ers, res­i­dents, employ­ees, cus­tomers, or oth­er mem­bers of the pub­lic around the Airport. 

The Drill is designed to meet FAA require­ments with­out delay­ing or dis­rupt­ing nor­mal oper­a­tions at the Air­port. Air­line arrivals, depar­tures, and oth­er ser­vices offered at the Air­port will con­tin­ue as scheduled. 

“This is an impor­tant drill to ensure the Air­port and part­ner­ing agen­cies are trained and pre­pared to han­dle a large-scale emer­gency event,” said Park­er W. McClel­lan Jr., A.A.E., ECP Exec­u­tive Direc­tor. ​“A dis­as­ter can hap­pen at any time, so our team and mutu­al aid agen­cies are con­stant­ly train­ing and stand ready to respond.” 

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion contact: 

Chief Jer­ry Swearin­gen, Fire Chief 

(850) 814‑7396

Mr. Richard McConnell, Deputy Exec­u­tive Director 

(850) 636‑8950 x 203 

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan, Exec­u­tive Director 

(850) 636‑8950 x 205 

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About North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport 

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) offers some of the region’s low­est aver­age air­fares and is locat­ed less than 30 min­utes from Pana­ma City Beach, Pana­ma City, and the beach­es of South Wal­ton. Today, with ser­vice from Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air Lines, South­west Air­lines, and Unit­ed Air­lines, ECP’s air­line part­ners pro­vide dai­ly flights to world­wide des­ti­na­tions, includ­ing year-round and sea­son­al non­stop flights between ECP and Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS) Bal­ti­more (BWI), Char­lotte (CLT), Chica­go (MDW/ORD), Dal­las (DAL/DFW), Den­ver (DEN), Hous­ton (HOU/IAH), Indi­anapo­lis (IND), Kansas City (MCI), Nashville (BNA), St. Louis (STL), Wash­ing­ton DC (DCA), and more. ECP pro­vides North­west Flori­da with first-class facil­i­ties and was strate­gi­cal­ly devel­oped for major eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. ECP is the gate­way to vis­i­tors seek­ing North­west Florida’s famous beach­es. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it ifly​beach​es​.com.