Fire & Rescue has existed in Copenhagen Airport since 1947.
Because of the fact that 90% of all planes in Copenhagen Airport is either taking off or landing over the sea, we established a sea rescue service as part of the Fire & Rescue department.
After a few years a 24-hour shift system was established, with a minimum of 14 firefighters on duty divided between 2 firestations.
In 1997 we established the current harbor facilities to the sea rescue service, which is located at Kystvejen 53 in Kastrup.
Der blev indkøbt nye fartøjer vores nuværende moderfartøj Airport Rescue på 20 Bt. og et hjælpefartøj en større Ribbåd.
There was bought new vessels, our current Airport Rescue on 20 Bt. and a larger RIB-boat
The requirements for the training of our staff who handled the sea rescue service was increased, and we created a special training program for the boat crew which got authorized by The Dansih Maritime Authority.
A certication system was developed, so now all of our boat crew will go through an annual certification.
On every shift, we have trained instructors in charge of training and certification.
Our sea rescue service started doing outside tasks in relation to the Øresundsbridge being built and ran as a guard vessel. Later on, we became part of resolving the rescue- and recovery tasks at the surrounding sea. This became a very important task for the sea rescue service and the possibilities for maintaining and to productdevelop workmethods in sea rescue.
In 2014, Fire & Rescue established their own trainingcenter called CARFA, located at a special location in the sourthern part of the airport.
With this, our vision was to share knowledge and competences we have accomplishes through the years, with aviation firefighter from other parts of Denmark and the rest of the world.
A lot of money has been invested in our training facilities and drill objects to build up a realistic training invironment coming as close as possible to the real deal.
Our harbor is getting equipped with training facilities, such as a Water Mock-Up.
We have hired commercial divers as part of our sea rescue service, and in 2013 we got authorized for commercial diving by The Dansih Maritime Authority. One of the tasks is to dive in our own harbor and various installations in and around the airport.
In 2016, we started doing external courses within sea rescue. The courses are for airports with their own sea rescue service and is focused on rescuing people in a plane crash at sea.
In 2017, we created a course for cabin crew with theoretical and practical sea rescue exercises in relation to an emergency landing on water.
In 2018, CARFA got authorized by The Danish Maritime Authority to offer maritime basic training and first air for divers.
In 2018, we also initiate a partnership with external instructors who will work as freelance instructors, in cooperation with our own instructors to make sure we keep as high and updated professional level as possible.
It is in the works to offer additional courses within the maritime invironment.
In 2019, we got all new training facilities in our sea rescue harbor.
Education, training and knowledge sharing is a very important focal point for CARFA today.