SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane International Airport is making sure it is prepared for potential crisis situations with a full-scale emergency exercise.
On Wednesday, GEG hosted a drill to allow first responders and the airport’s Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting department to practice their emergency preparedness.
The exercise staged a mock aircraft incident and included 65 actor ‘victims’ to help simulate a real emergency.
The drill was designed to mimic a 2024 situation at Toronto Airport in which a plane left the runway after landing.
COO of Spokane International Airport said the number of actors used is close to what they would expect to have on a regional flight to or from Spokane.
Actors portrayed a variety of injuries and called for attention from ambulances, prompting EMTs to figure out who needed to be treated first and how.
“Looking at that we can see how many injuries there were, what types of injuries they were and we can ballpark that. We always want to make sure we have enough injuries and types of injuries to make it a valuable exercise for our participants,” Sheehan said.
He said it is also important to see how long it takes non-airport first responders to arrive on the scene.
“We rely on other agencies responding to assist us in emergencies like this. So, seeing the length of time it takes them to arrive is really important so we can adequately prepare for that gap,” Sheehan said.
Overall, he said he was impressed and pleased with the drill and that GEG will continue to look to other airports to see how they prepare for emergencies.
“The preparation never ends. So fortunately, we don’t have a lot of real-world incidents that we have to respond to of this type. So we do a lot of practice, we do a lot of discussion and a lot of table-top exercises.”
The Federal Aviation Administration requires the airport conduct a full-scale drill every three years.
The training did not interfere with the airport’s normal operations.
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