"Dulles Airport Emergency Drill Helps Prepare for Worst Case Scenario"

Saturday, May 8, 2004

Drill prepares for the worst at Dulles 
The Associated Press


CHANTILLY, Va. -- It was the call no one wants to hear. 

A voice crackled over a radio saying an MD-80 jet crashed just after takeoff
from Washington Dulles International Airport. But on Saturday, it was only a
drill aimed at improving preparedness should the real thing ever happen. 

A fire was set in a mock fuselage, and acting victims screaming in agony
from pretend wounds--were led to safety. 

"We'll exercise our instant management system," said Steven E. Cooper, chief
of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire and Rescue
Department, noting that realism is crucial. "That's really a key to a
large-scale disaster." 

Adding to the realism was the presence of the FBI, which would investigate
to determine if terrorists were to blame. 

"Things are inherently chaotic," said Michael Mason with the FBI's
Washington Field Office. But even before a cause is determined, a crash site
is treated as a crime scene. 

"We have to preserve the evidence and we have to collect the evidence.
Security is a very big aspect," said Maj. Richard George of the Metropolitan
Washington Airports Authority Police. 

The exercise was held at the Dulles Fire Training Facility, which has a
control tower, a mock plane and other features which the Airports Authority
says makes it the only facility of its kind on the East Coast. 

On the Net: 

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: http://www.mwaa.com/index.htm


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************