It seemed like any other routine working day for the tourist police in Hua Hin district last Tuesday until they received a distress call from a charter flight carrying three Russian businessmen which attempted to make an emergency landing at a local airport, according to a local accident drill.
The plane from Suvarnabhumi aiport had supposedly fallen short of the runway and dipped into the sea between the nearby Cha-am district in Phetchaburi and Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan.
A search party was launched to locate the plane and help the victims while a war room was set up to direct the search and rescue operation. The tourist police office teamed up with other key police units, such as the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), the Marine Police Division (MPD) and the Highway Police (HP).
A coordinated, inter-agency effort is vital for a speedy search and rescue to find any survivors in a crash. The distress call, and the crash, were a simulated situation for the “Tourist Rescue Exercise 2015” - a drill organised for tourist police officers on Tuesday to learn how to manage a rescue operation should an unexpected emergency arise.
In the exercise, the tourist police took the leading role for search and rescue, because they were the only agency with all the basic information on tourists and the areas the plane might have crashed.
The tourist police first asked the marine police patrolling the beaches to help pinpoint the crash site, using aerial surveillance by a helicopter sent from the police paratroop division and a rescue helicopter from the National Police Office.
At the same time, rubber dinghies were deployed into the ocean to manoeuvre within the search area should passengers be sighted. Next, the helicopter was used to airlift crash survivors from the sea and transport them to a nearby hospital.
As the number of tourists has increased dramatically in Thailand in recent decades, the tourist police would have to work with other police units to respond to emergencies, such as a plane crash.
The tourist police are generally preoccupied with preventing and responding to crimes related to tourism, said Pol Lt Gen Thitirach Nongharnpithak, chief of the CIB, in his capacity as the head of the tourist rescue exercise programme.
But now they have been trained beyond their core duties to deal with natural disasters, risks and hazards or major criminal threats. Their training has prepared them to launch a large-scale intervention if necessary, he said.
“We need to thwart any threats or risks to tourists, as it could harm Thailand’s tourism reputation,” said Pol Lt Gen Thitirach.
Tourism is one of the key drivers of economic growth, and it is particularly vulnerable to being damaged by negative publicity.
If foreign tourists’ confidence is shaken, the industry suffers immediately, say experts. With exports being battered by the global market slump, the tourist industry is now more vital than ever for sustaining the Thai economy and thus needs to be protected, according to the tourist police.
“Natural disasters are out of anyone’s control, whether they are tsunamis, mudslides, wild fires or floods. That is why we have to be prepared to deal with them,” said Lt Gen Thitirach.
From now on, tourist police will continue to sharpen their knowledge about how to respond to natural disasters. The officers must learn more about topography and geography coordinates. “Every minute in a disaster rescue operation is a matter of life and death,” said the CIB chief.
He said there are more chances of accidents happening to tourists than in the general population as proportionally they are travelling more frequently by car, air or boat while in Thailand. The tourist police have to be trained in standard practices to rescue tourists from all possible scenarios. “It is equally important for the tourist police to learn to work more efficiently with other police units, including the border patrol police, to ensure their rescue work is accurate and timely,” added Lt Gen Thitirach.
The Tourist Police Division (TPD) last month issued a handbook, Tourist Rescue Exercise 2015 or T-Rex 2015, that explains how to rescue tourists in an emergency. The handbook introduces how to use a map to locate the site of the disaster as well as what needs to be done to set up an operation centre, manage emergencies, gather evidence and give first aid.
Pol Maj Gen Suphaphol Arunsit, the TPD commander, said the rescue exercise would not have been possible without the cooperation of other police branches, including the CIB, the Crime Suppression Division, the HP, the MPD and the Police Aviation Division.
“The exercise is a model for similar training that can be adopted by other state agencies in the future,” said Pol Maj Gen Arunsit. The commander added the search and rescue operation is a new duty required of tourist police, and it is not to be considered a burden. The tourist police will also be trained for different geographic rescues, such as how to respond to accident occurring in mountainous areas.
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