MGM Airport Tests Its Emergency Response With Full-Scale Disaster Drill
The runway at Montgomery Regional Airport was filled with emergency crews Wednesday morning, responding to a mock plane crash.
For nearly two hours the airport held a full-scale disaster exercise. Police, firefighters, medics and Montgomery Co. Emergency Management Agency officials lined the tarmac rescuing “victims” from a downed aircraft; using make-up and props to make it as realistic as possible.
It’s a yearly event, held each October to “test and evaluate its established protocol and response for aircraft incidents and emergencies on airport property” officials said in a press release.
“A plane came in and it actually crashed and skidded of the runway, we have some fatalities and we have some people that were injured” explained Executive Director Marshall Taggart, describing the scenario at-hand.
The airport did send out a heads-up to travelers and people that live nearby not to be alarmed during exercise that could have easily been mistaken as real from afar; but personnel responded and communicated with each other just as they would if this were a real disaster.
After the disaster exercise there was a debriefing where all of the emergency crews discussed their response and how they could perform better, if the exercise were in fact, real.
