Huntsville International Airport Holds Full-Scale Mock Disaster Drill

When a fake disaster strikes, you find out who your real friends are. Huntsville International Airport (HSV) invited local first responders and more than 80 volunteers to take part in its triennial Disaster Drill today. The part 139 Full-scale Disaster Drill is required of commercial airports by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) every three years to test emergency responses for communication, fire and police, emergency medical, mutual aid and the incident command system.

The exercise scenario comes from a pre-set agenda: simulate the fiery crash of a commercial airplane full of passengers and manage the situation to minimize loss of life and assets.

“This exercise is necessary for us to test our emergency response readiness, but in reality it’s for our community,” said Port of Huntsville Public Safety Chief Chris Scott. “By choreographing response with our public safety mutual aid partners – fire, police and emergency medical aid – we can determine how to make the best use of all of the resources at our disposal with the goal of saving lives.”

Volunteers in the community spent the early morning hours receiving moulage – realistic-looking makeup that simulates mild to severe wounds received as a result of the simulated wrecked plane. The special visual effects help emergency responders and medical professionals practice assessment of the physical condition of each victim. Each volunteer received a card on arrival detailing their wounds and condition, everything from bruises and abrasions to impaled objects, broken, protruding limbs and dislodged eyeballs. Volunteer makeup artists applied moulage based on the card descriptions.

The volunteers were then bused out to the east runway and scattered safely away from a large metal tube roughly the size of a school bus. A roaring fire was set in the burn barrel, and the clock started ticking. First on the scene were HSV’s own specialized ARFF (Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting) trucks, arriving in seconds and dousing the flames with water in just a few more. The mutual aid partners and additional Airport Public Safety Officers set about to triage patients, sorting them according to the severity of their injuries, and simulated transport of the worst cases to Huntsville Hospital and other nearby medical facilities in emergency medical practice runs.

At the conclusion of the exercise, victims were transported back to a hangar on the eastern air cargo side of the airport and treated to lunch. Huntsville International will know that the drill was successful after a debriefing between Airport Public Safety officials and mutual aid partners in the following days.

“Success at an emergency exercise that simulates such a tragic event means that any weaknesses in our response system were uncovered, and that means we will be even better prepared for the real thing,” Scott said. “We hope it never happens.”