The PANTHER at Changi Airport.

Only the best airport technology is considered for the best airports in the world.

Singapore Changi Airport is one of the world’s most awarded airports. It regularly comes up on top for traveller experience, retail and F&B offerings, and passenger handling. Safety management is Changi’s priority and the bedrock of the airport’s operations. A central component of this is the Airport Emergency Service (AES) at Changi Airport, which is responsible for all emergencies on the airport premises and is well equipped to deal with them.

Speed, skill, safety

Three words on the patches of the uniforms indicate what the Airport Emergency Service represents: speed, skill, safety. AES has around 500 highly trained emergency personnel in its ranks, who work in shifts around the clock to ensure safety at the aerodromes it is deployed at. In addition to aircraft fire protection, they also provide fire protection for buildings and operate a sea rescue component if an aircraft overshoots a runway and has to ditch in the sea.

The ARFF vehicles at Changi are strategically positioned across the airport site in four fire station such that Changi’s firefighters can reach an incident in any of the airport’s three runways in no more than 3 minutes.

Aircraft rescue and tank fire fighting vehicles

The ARFF vehicles, PANTHER 6x6, which are used by the emergency service not only as aircraft rescue and fire fighting vehicles (foam tenders) but also as supply vehicles (water tenders). All have the same amount of extinguishing agent (12,000 l water, 1,500 l foam compound, 250 kg dry powder and 100 kg Halotron) on board and have the same extinguishing system capacity of 9,000 l/min. One of the ARFF vehicles is equipped with a High Reach Extendible Turret (HRET) - STINGER. In addition to the water foam monitor, the HRET is equipped with a hydraulic piercing tool, which can be used to pierce an aircraft's outer skin and apply Halotron inside the aircraft to displace oxygen and smothers the fire. This is an effective tool while firefighting in cargo holds of passenger aircrafts or on cargo aircrafts themselves.

In addition, all vehicles have a Birdview system and numerous, special safety features, such as ESC (electronic stability control) or service4fire MADAS, a system that analyzes and records driving behavior and alerts the driver to critical situations while driving.

Close to customers

The first PANTHER was delivered to Changi Airport Group back in 2004, with the last vehicles entering service between 2018 and 2020. These were a total of 16 PANTHER 6x6, eleven of which are equipped with a HVLA (High Volume Low Attack) Turret. In addition, the Airport Emergency Service fleet includes two Rosenbauer E8000/3000 escape stairs, as well as several tank fire fighting and emergency medical support vehicle manufactured locally by our Asian subsidiary S.K. Rosenbauer Pte. Ltd. in Singapore.

S.K. Rosenbauer Pte. ltd. has been servicing the Changi Airport Group since the end of the 1970s and is not only responsible for the delivery, handover, and training of the PANTHERs, but also provides servicing support for the vehicles. Being very close to the customer - Rosenbauer service team can be on site within the hour - is an important asset in the customer relationship.