"Emergency responders drill at Stewart"

Sunday, December 5, 2004

Emergency responders drill at Stewart
By Larry Fisher-Hertz
The Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal
 
  
NEWBURGH -- A young man who identified himself only as "T.J." was lying on
the tarmac of Stewart International Airport Saturday morning. 

"My head! My head!" the teenager screamed at paramedics from the Town of
Newburgh Volunteer Ambulance Corps. 

A paramedic put T.J. on a stretcher and wheeled him to a waiting ambulance. 

About 100 yards away, firefighters boarded the 747 jumbo jet from which T.J.
had been evacuated in the mock disaster drill hosted by the airport. 

More than 100 police, National Guard troops, U.S. Customs officers and fire
and rescue personnel from Stewart and nearly a dozen surrounding towns took
part in the drill. 

Scenario was complex 

Chuck Seliga, aviation manager for the airport, gave reporters and
photographers at the airport administration building the following scenario:


A Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt bound for Newark had been diverted to
Stewart Airport at about 9 a.m. When it landed, Seliga said, U.S. Customs
agents boarded the plane to interview a so-called "person of interest" -- a
man identified only as "Brown" whose name had shown up on a list as being a
possible security risk. 

According to the scenario, the plane caught fire as customs agents were
inspecting cargo. When the fire started, firefighters from the airport and
Air National Guard responded, Seliga said. A few minutes later, state police
and local fire and rescue squads were alerted. 

Representatives of all these agencies then raced to the 747 -- a plane
airport officials said was there to be scrapped -- sitting on the tarmac. 

The injured "passengers" who were evacuated from the plane were local Boy
Scouts and children of National Guard members, all of them staying in
character during the drill, screaming about their "injuries." 

Too busy to comment 

Firefighters and rescue squad members also kept their focus, politely
deflecting questions from reporters, saying they were busy attending to the
emergency. 

Local agencies participating included Cornwall Volunteer Ambulance, Mobile
Life Support Systems, Plattekill Fire Department, Town of Montgomery
Ambulance Corps., Coldenham Fire and Rescue, Maybrook Engine Company,
Blooming Grove EMS, Town of Newburgh Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the Storm
King Fire Company. 

Steven Greenberg, a chief inspector of the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection Service, said the drill was designed to simulate exactly what
might happen if an international flight with security or safety problems was
diverted to Stewart. 

"In that case, since it's an international flight, we'd be the lead agency
coordinating everything," Greenberg said. 

He said representatives of the agencies involved in Saturday's drill would
meet in the next few weeks to assess its success.

View exercise photo's at:
 
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stories/lo120504p4.shtml#
66324

Participants in a disaster-preparedness drill feign pain in a triage area on
the tarmac at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh Saturday. Airport,
local, state and federal officials took part.  
 
A 747 scheduled to be scrapped played a starring role in the emergency
preparedness drill drama at Stewart International Airport Saturday.


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