Aircraft Mishaps Not a Gamble Option in Macau.

With tourism arrivals skyrocketing in Asia’s most successful Casinoland, the Macau International Airport - Aeroporte Internacional de Macau has a pivotal role to ensure foreign visitors arrive safe and sound.
All flights at this former Portuguese enclave depend on the single elevated runway above the Pearl River Delta.

To undertake this precarious task of landing in Macau, only a selected breed of pilots can maneuver the runaway, and reputedly one of the narrowest airport runways in the world.

One false move and it is recipe for catastrophe.

But aircraft mishaps are far too great a risk to gamble even in Macau – which has some of the highest casinos per capita in the world.

Not wanting to take any chance, the airport has brought in three Rosenbauer state-of-the-art rescue and fire fighting vehicle in Nov. 2007.

In Oct. 08, I saw one of the Austrian-made vehicle- Unit #11 -parked at the runway edge from inside Air Asia A320. (main picture top above)

The performance spec. for the Rosenbauer Panther 6X6 is impressive. It can reach a top speed of 120km/h and cruising at that speed the fire truck could cover the entire length of the runway under the stipulated international response time of 3 minute or less. The CAT C-18 6 cylinders engine also gives enough power to hit 0-80km/h in 29 seconds.

Unit #12 - Photos courtesy of Melinda.
One of the vehicle (not sure which?) comes with a telesquirt or a long arm gadgetry to help fight fiery clash. The new generation fire truck has water and foam tanks carrying up to 12,500 litres and 1,500 litres respectively to help it take on missions successfully and make Macau Airport one of the safest too.