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Fact Box

The agencies participating in the FD Regional Airport full-scale emergency disaster drill included:

Airport personnel

Fort Dodge Fire Department

Fort Dodge Police Department

Webster County Sheriff's Office

Trinity Regional Medical Center Ambulance

Southwest Webster-Gowrie Ambulance

Badger Fire Department

Vincent Ambulance

Air National Guard

Webster County Emergency Management Agency

Iowa Central Community College

Webster County Public Health Department

Emergency preparedness offices

Bodies were strewn across the runway.

Emergency trucks, their lights flashing, sped to the scene of the "disaster," where gallons of water were sprayed by Fort Dodge Fire Department and Fort Dodge Regional Airport trucks onto a "flaming" plane.

Emergency responders rushed to treat the victims.

A gutted school bus represented the commercial plane. The private plane was a sedan. Nursing students from Iowa Central Community College and Webster County Public Health Department workers played the wounded.

Even though responders treated the Thursday morning scenario like a legitimate disaster, it was actually Fort Dodge Regional Airport's full-scale emergency disaster drill.

"Our drill objectives are to test and improve our emergency preparedness skills," said Rhonda Chambers, director of aviation for the Fort Dodge Regional Airport. "This exercise is intended to allow airport personnel, along with cooperating hospital, fire, law enforcement, military and emergency preparedness offices, to practice their emergency roles in response to a simulated aircraft emergency."

The scenario began after the larger commercial plane landed and a private Baron airplane taxied into its path. Both aircrafts sustained heavy damage, were on fire and fuel was leaking from the commercial plane.

The result? "Disaster."

The drill required the groups to work together in search and rescue, fire control, setting up a command center and staging and triage areas on the scene, and ultimately transporting the victims to Trinity Regional Medical Center.

Sixty-five participants from 19 organizations took part in the drill.

With the wounded named according to their injuries - A. Kyhead and S. Ornee, emergency responders administered treatment accordingly.

At Trinity's emergency room, staff there had set up its own staging area.

The drill gave everyone a chance to play out a worst-case scenario without real stress.

"We get to see what equipment and capabilities everybody else has," said Woody Wolfe, of the Fort Dodge Fire Department. "To get out and put this in practice will show us what we need to do better in the future."

Chambers said the biggest obstacle they encountered during the drill was communication.

"Communications are always the thing we run into that gives us the most problems," she said. "We find out ways we can do a better job of talking to each other in that situation."

Two firsts were achieved during this seventh disaster drill at the airport, said Chambers. One was that Frontier Communications set up a mobile wireless network which allowed participants to access the Internet from anywhere on site. The other was that they were able to set up an Internet-based emergency operation center. The Web EOC runs through the state's emergency management agency to access all 99 counties in Iowa instantly, Chambers said. In a real disaster situation, they would be able to request more help or get additional supplies.

For nearly an hour and a half, the exercise dominated the airport grounds.

Then it was over.

Said Chambers, "I'm confident if there ever is an aircraft accident, our time spent during these exercises will be invaluable."

Contact Angela Burch at (515) 573-2141 or aburch@messengernews.net