By Pat Kondas, American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming Public Affairs
“There has been an aircraft incident at the airport.” Even though this was just an exercise, the words are chilling. Wednesday, August 23, 2023. The Cheyenne Airport Full Scale Exercise was under way.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial airports to have emergency plans for responding to a mass casualty incident and to periodically conduct full scale exercises to test those plans. For many airports, this means every three years, and this year, Cheyenne was due.
For the purposes of the Cheyenne Airport exercise, the scenario was that a Skywest plane with 21 passengers and staff aboard was landing just as a construction company dump truck decided to drive onto the runway.
Volunteer actors arrived before the exercise to be made up with realistic looking wounds and injuries. They were then positioned around the simulated crashed wreckage. First responders were called in and began their work.
The American Red Cross is not a first responder and so had to wait to be called. However, a Red Cross representative is one of the fist to be called into the Joint Information Center so they can be ready to call in the team when requested. A Memorandum of Understanding with the National Transportation Safety Board details the specific duties and responsibilities of the Red Cross in such an incident. Those duties include setting up a Family Reunification Center, coordination of mental health and other responders and volunteers and other duties.
The importance of having the Red Cross participate in these exercises became immediately apparent when the Reunification Team was called in. No location had been predetermined so they were redirected several times and then placed in the basement of an adjacent building with no working elevator. At the same time, it was discovered that airline officials are responsible for setting up their own Family Assistance Center. Obviously, the various entities should all be working together to coordinate efforts and avoid duplication. These problems were discussed in the debriefing that followed the exercise and the airport will be adjusting their emergency plans to address the issues.
Red Cross people train constantly for something they hope will never happen. But it’s because of exercises like these, we know we can be ready if it does.