Exercise Whakarauora Tangata underway

Exercise Whakarauora Tangata is the Nationally Significant SAR Exercise, preparing for a high-consequence, low-probability SAR operation.

In the past few months, planning has been focused on developing the scenario in preparation for the first activity in the series. This was an Incident Management Team Exercise (IMTEX) held on 26 July 2023 in the Bay of Plenty. We look forward to sharing with you how it went in the next issue of Link magazine. The Secretariat has also conducted an initial scoping visit to Dunedin and had preliminary discussions around a further IMTEX in Fiordland in late November.

During our consultations with key SAR agencies and those who might be called in to support a nationally significant SAR response, it has been great to see the level of interest being shown to either partic-ipate in or alongside the exercise. A number of agencies want to use the exercise to validate their own plans and procedures. This is within the context of the reconciliation and welfare response requirements, mass arrivals plans and transport investigation requirements. The Bay of Plenty IMTEX saw several agencies establishing emergency operations centres to support the management of medical, welfare and reconciliation needs for the victims. While the NZSAR Secretariat’s focus is on the SAR response, if we can, we will accommodate other agency participation to ensure the investment in the exercise achieves maximum benefit.

The wider Coordinating Instruction together with General Instruction for the Bay of Plenty Phase can be found on the Exercise Whakarauroa Tangata page on the NZSAR website.

For more information

Visit www.nzsar.govt.nz/natsigsarex or contact Lead Planner John Dyer, j.dyer@nzsar.govt.nz.

This article was first published in the September 2023 issue of Link magazine. 

Feature image: Exercise Whakarauora Tangata scenario video. Supplied