Ports of Jersey, in conjunction with the Jersey Resilience Forum, will be leading a live multi-agency major incident exercise – named Exercise Starling – on Tuesday 7 October 2025.
The exercise will take place at Jersey Airport from 4pm to 10pm and is designed to test how the Island responds to emergencies, especially those involving an aircraft.
The Exercise provides an opportunity to put important, emergency plans into practice, as well as ensuring requirements are met under Civil Aviation regulations, as running large-scale, multi-agency exercises is a requirement under Civil those regulations.
Islanders are reassured that flights and normal Airport operations won’t be affected by the Exercise.
Exercise Starling will bring together Airport partners and members of the Jersey Resilience Forum, including:
- Ports of Jersey
- States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service
- States of Jersey Police
- The Honorary Police
- States of Jersey Ambulance Service
- Jersey General Hospital
To make the exercise as realistic as possible, volunteer actors will play various roles—some may look distressed or appear to need medical attention. Please don’t be alarmed if you see this happening.
Anyone in or around the Airport during this time will notice more blue-light activity than usual. This is all part of the exercise—there’s no real emergency. The General Hospital is also taking part, so people might see more ambulances and police at the hospital during the times in which the exercise is taking place.
Ben Spiers, Head of Airport Fire and Airside Operations at Ports of Jersey, says, “Exercise Starling is a fantastic opportunity to test and validate the Airport’s emergency response procedures alongside the Island’s emergency services. Our staff regularly train for a variety of incidents, and full-scale exercise, help us keep improving our emergency response and business continuity plans as well as validating our aerodrome certification with the Office of the Director of Civil Aviation (OCDA).”
Richard Blake, Jersey’s Deputy Emergency Planning Officer, said, “This Exercise is a pre-planned operation which is a critical activity as part of our Training, Exercising and Learning strategy, based both on what we ‘must do’ and what we need to do to be prepared. In Jersey, we plan for at least one ‘Live Play’ major incident Exercise every year. It’s a great way to test our plans in a controlled environment and learn from the experience.”