TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Travelers at Taipei Songshan Airport witnessed 150 rescue workers taking 10 specially trained dogs and their equipment on board a plane Friday (Sept. 6).

The chartered China Airlines (CAL) flight actually only traveled as far as Taoyuan International Airport, as the mission formed part of a drill, per Radio Taiwan International. The rescue workers wanted to see how well prepared they were to respond to an overseas emergency.

Fire department teams from across the country gathered at the airport as if they really were heading overseas on a disaster rescue mission. They prepared to line up at 10 a.m., checked in, passed through immigration, and took 10 tons of equipment with them.

The flight took off at 1 p.m. and landed in Taoyuan two hours later, where they simulated an arrival at a foreign airport in a disaster zone. Rescue experts from the United States and Japan observed the whole procedure to give advice on how to improve and speed up the operation.

Taiwan has transformed itself from being a disaster area needing relief after the Sept. 21, 1999 earthquake, to a country able to provide assistance during overseas emergencies under the motto “Taiwan Can Help,” Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said at Friday’s event. She named the February 2023 earthquake in southern Turkey as an example.