->To improve disaster relief effectiveness and strengthen disaster response efficiency, the National Fire Agency (NFA) held a charter flight drill for international humanitarian rescue.

In order to further enhance Taiwan's response effectiveness in international humanitarian rescue missions, today (20240906), the National Fire Agency (NFA) held a charter flight drill for international humanitarian rescue at Terminal 1 of Taipei International Songshan Airport. Minister LIU Shyh-fang of the Interior (MOI) was especially present at the scene to confer a flag to the drill team as encouragement. As per Minister LIU, upon the occurrence of a major international disaster, the timely arrangement of charter flight could allow Taiwan’s search and rescue (SAR) team to speedily go abroad for disaster relief, quickly flying to the disaster-affected country to conduct human life search and rescue operations. The drill this time has combined the efforts from relevant government agencies and civil society organizations, which not only verified the effectiveness of the charter flight operation, but also integrated our search and rescue mobilization mechanisms for better coordination.

Pointed out by Minister LIU, this year (2024) marks the 25th anniversary of the 921 Earthquake. In order to strengthen Taiwan's search and rescue and response capabilities in dealing with earthquake, the National Fire Agency (NFA) especially planned this cross-ministerial charter flight drill for earthquake search and rescue before the National Disaster Preparedness Day on 2024/09/21. On the morning of 2024/09/06, after check-in reporting and assembling at Taipei International Songshan Airport, members for the drill got on the outbound charter flight. In the afternoon of 2024/09/06, the inbound charter flight flew back to Taipei International Songshan Airport from the simulated disaster area (i.e. Taoyuan International Airport). Throughout the entire drill, the charter flight process for international humanitarian rescue mission was followed, including the border outbound and inbound process of the search and rescue team, the check-in reporting process of the personnel, search and rescue dogs, and rescue equipment in a shunt mode, streamline customs process, and the Reception and Departure Center (RDC) process. By integrating the cooperation and coordination of various ministries/councils and civil society units, all participating parties got to learn about the processes of the national search and rescue team's implementation of international humanitarian rescue missions. The charter flight process could shorten flight transportation time, ensuring our search and rescue team’s timely arrival in the disaster-affected country to immediately dive in life-saving search and rescue operations.

At the flag-conferring ceremony, SATOKO Yoshino, the consul of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, expressed his gratitude to Taiwan for its long-term immediate assistance provided to Japan during disasters in Japan, who hoped that the friendship in mutual aid between Taiwan and Japan could carry on for the time to come. Mr. Dewey PERKS, Coordinating Officer of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), also indicated that 25 years ago, he came to Taiwan for disaster relief during the 921 Earthquake. Today, seeing that Taiwan's overall search and rescue capabilities in dealing with earthquake have been greatly enhanced, PERKS affirmed that Taiwan now is capable of making contribution to other disaster-stricken countries around the world, who hoped that Taiwan and the United States could continue to exchange and cooperate in disaster relief efforts for the time to come as well. Mr. CHANG Jing-sen, Chairman of the Taiwan Foundation for Disaster Relief (TFDR) indicated that it pleased him to see the continuous growth of Taiwan’s search and rescue team in the past 22 years during which Taiwan’s search and rescue team has carried out international humanitarian rescue missions for seven (7) times, where in 2023 the international humanitarian rescue mission was carried out with deployment of a charter flight for the first time. The deployment of a charter flight allowed the SAR team to arrive at the disaster-stricken area at the earliest opportunity, which demonstrated Taiwan's soft power in international humanitarian rescue and was praised by other international rescue teams present on-site. Moreover, such deployment expedited the response time for search and rescue in saving human lives. The Taiwan Foundation for Disaster Relief (TFDR) believed that it was very important to carry out international humanitarian rescue operations through deployment of charter flights.

As per Minister LIU, in order to enhance the mobilization and integration capabilities of the search and rescue teams, the drill this time was a joint effort of search and rescue teams from various fire departments that have passed the National Accreditation Process (NAP), including 15 members, respectively, from heavy search and rescue teams (namely from Taipei City, New Taipei City, and Kaohsiung City), 10 members, respectively, from medium search and rescue teams (namely Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Tainan City, Hsinchu City, Pingtung County, Hualien County, and Taitung County), and 15 members from the Special Search and Search Team of the National Fire Agency (NFA), totaling in 130 members who were mobilized, consisting of 110 search and rescue personnel, 10 medical doctors, 7 nurses, 3 civil structure technicians, plus 10 search and rescue dogs, and 10 tons of rescue equipment. The drill this time was to verify the collaboration capabilities among various units and serve as a reference for future related disaster relief operations.

At last, indicated by Minister LIU Shyh-fang, this drill was crucial to enhancing Taiwan's response capability in international humanitarian rescue. We look forward to establishing a standardized operating model through close cooperation among various government agencies and private enterprises and groups, to achieve the goal of strengthening the integrated disaster relief mechanism across multiple entities horizontally and vertically, demonstrating Taiwan’s capabilities in handling major disasters, and further enhancing Taiwan's crucial position in international disaster relief.

Charter Flight Drill and Flag Handing Ceremony

Charter Flight Drill and Flag Handing Ceremony

Chairman of the Disaster Relief Foundation, Zhang Jingsen, delivered a speech.

Consul Yoshinori Satou of the Japan Exchange Association delivered a speech.

USAID Coordinator Mr. Dewey Perck delivered a speech.