The ENAC Crisis Room was created in 2012 with a decree from the office of the Prime Minister which authorized the Authority to program and create a Crisis Room with the responsibility to both manage and organize a response to all those calamities that could affect the air transport sector. The Authority’s Crisis Room is therefore the focal point for all emergency situations that involve the areas of Safety and Security.

In functional terms the Unit is managed by the Authority’s Head Office and is composed of a “Situation Room” and a “Decision Room”. The Situation Room operates 24 hours a day and is staffed by 4 employees who work regular hours. What does 24 hours mean, therefore? In truth, we have arrived at a system that guarantees 24 hour trackability. There is a group of managers who are contactable from 8 in the morning until 8 at night who work shifts, and then a pool of managers who are contactable via a computer system.

This system, a virtual operator, allows anyone from the aviation community involved in an event of particular seriousness which involves the air transport sector to get in touch with the pool.
In the case of one of these events the Crisis Room intervenes with force through strong coordination, and becomes the reference point to obtain immediately in real time all the information necessary that needs to be communicated to the other players involved.

The Crisis Room, therefore, works together in a stable manner with all those organizations that are institutionally mandated to deal with emergencies: I refer to the Civil Defence Department, the Ministry of the Interior, the police force, the fire brigade – in short, the Home Office, and also port authorities and the air safety board. There are other players we must relate with, including the Ministry we depend on – the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport – in the search for all the necessary information in real time on which to base the consequent decisions.