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The Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security, Massport, and United Airlines have announced the rescheduling of Operation Atlas due to the severe weather conditions expected on Saturday, May 7. The drill will be rescheduled for sometime in early June.

Operation Atlas is a consolidated real-time exercise that will simulate a terrorist hijacking of an airliner en route from Paris to Chicago. The drill will include rescue, triage, victim assistance and hospital transport. More than 50 federal, state and local agencies will participate in the exercise, along with more than 80 volunteers.

“A major component of the exercise was to test the interoperability among agencies and unfortunately, the efficiency and effectiveness of our evaluation process would have been significantly hampered by the weather," Carlo Boccia, Director, Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security.

The recommendation to postpone Operation Atlas first came from representatives at United Air Lines.

“The top priority of this drill is safety. Given the weather forecast for Saturday, United did not feel that we could operate the drill as designed,” said Capt. Hank Krakowski, Vice President of Safety and Security, United Airlines. “We are very disappointed to have to postpone the drill as we have committed a number of corporate and personnel resources for this exercise. We look forward to making Operation Atlas a success early next month,” continued Krakowski.

Call Jennifer Mehigan, 617-635-4461 , or Richard Walsh, 617-568-3100 with questions.

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