Juneau International Airport, working with agencies from city, state and federal levels, carried out an exercise Saturday morning simulating a major plane crash.
The exercise of the airport emergency plan, which is required by the Federal Aviation Administration, happens every three years, said airport deputy manager Phil Adams.
“To be able to get that true picture of an airport emergency plan and how it works is invaluable,” Adams said.
A child simulating an airplane crash casualty walks across the tarmac at Juneau International Airport as part of an exercise on July 23, 2022. (Michael S. Lockett / Juneau Empire)
More than 80 volunteers aided the drill, Adams said, while Capital City Fire/Rescue personnel responded to the scene, putting out deliberately set fires in plane mockups, triaging casualties and simulating evacuation for further medical care.
Assistant Chief Sam Russell and Capt. Anne Wilcock led the response, said Assistant Chief Ed Quinto, who was evaluating the exercise.
Capt. Anne Wilcock of Capital City Fire/Rescue coordinates the department’s response to a simulated airplane crash during an exercise at Juneau International Airport on July 23, 2022. (Michael S. Lockett / Juneau Empire)
“Good exercise. We don’t get enough of the exercises,” said Quinto, who has been involved in over a dozen such drills over the years. “It puts our system in play.”
Airport firefighting vehicles extinguished the fire using water, Quinto said, not the dry foam that would typically be used to fight aviation fires.
A Capital City Fire/Rescue firefighter talks to kids acting as casualties during an exercise simulating a plane crash at Juneau International Airport on July 23, 2022. (Michael S. Lockett / Juneau Empire)
With the fires extinguished, the volunteers, simulating a variety of injuries ranging from compound fractures to squirting wounds to desocketed eyeballs took their positions, while CCFR personnel arrived on the scene, triaging their injuries.
Volunteer Kelton Griffith, 16, said he was involved because his father is an Army medic. Griffith’s injuries simulated the loss of an eye and the addition of debris to his leg.
A Capital City Fire/Rescue engine soaks down a fire as part of an exercising simulating a plane crash at Juneau International Airport on July 23, 2022. (Michael S. Lockett / Juneau Empire)
“I’ve been helping with stuff like this for years,” Griffith said. “I asked for an eyeball and the impaled leg. I picked this out yesterday because I thought ‘impaled leg, why not?’”
The exercise was success, Adams said.
“I think it went fairly well,” Adams said. “They got everyone triaged as quick as they could. For the most part they got everyone accounted for and transported in fairly good time.”
Deputy airport manager Phil Adams looks on as a small aircraft burns during a drill at Juneau International Airport. The drill held Saturday involved dozens of volunteers and several agencies. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)
The exercise cost about $20,000 to run, Adams said— during years where they don’t do an all-up exercise with real players, the organizations involved run a tabletop exercise, Adams said. In addition to CCFR, the Juneau Police Department, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Civil Air Patrol, Red Cross, City and Borough of Juneau and Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, participated in the exercise, Adams said.
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
Kelton Griffith roleplays as a griveiously injured casualty during an exercise simulating a plane crash at Juneau International Airport on July 23, 2022. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)
