Agartala, May 18 (IANS): Agartala airport authorities Friday conducted a mock drill to test its preparedness for crises like crash, emergency landing and hijacking, officials said.

Unaware about the exercise, passengers bound for Kolkata, Guwahati, Delhi and other places became panicky for some time, while media persons also rushed to the airport, but in vain.

"Agartala airport committee authorities Friday carried out the mock drill at the airport to assess the readiness of all units involved with the aircraft operations," Agartala airport director Sudhamoy Maiti told IANS.

He said that various teams and units of security forces, equipped with fire fighters, ambulances, fire pits, rescue teams, and other installations placed and posted far away from the runway were alerted to join the one and half hours long mock drill and their response times were observed.

"The loopholes and lacunae found in the mock drill exercise are being set right," Maiti said.

He said that participating in such mock drill would only help improve the preparedness of the officials and personnel of various divisions.