Martha’s Vineyard Airport ran a disaster drill Sunday morning, in cooperation with many of the Island’s fire and EMS departments. The mock scenario, according to airport director Geoff Freeman, involved an airliner with brakes that burst into flames during landing, spread fire under a wing, and sent the plane into a spin across a runway.
The plane was imaginary, but all the firefighting equipment was real. Following the deployment of the airport’s crash tenders (special airport fire trucks), fire and rescue trucks from several Vineyard towns joined ambulances in rushing across the tarmac to the pretend crash site. In light of the pandemic, volunteer victims, which were common to drills in years past, were replaced by traffic cones hung with triage cards. Command and communications was situated outdoors, behind the airport’s aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) building.
The drill, which lasted 53 minutes, shut down the airport for approximately two hours, according to Freeman. “I think it went extremely well,” he said.
A particular focus of the drill, he said, was honing communications. Freeman said the airport’s ARFF squad and the departments that drilled alongside that squad are already near the top of their games in areas such as firefighting and emergency medicine. However, communications needed development, and the drill provided that, he said.
The drill was held as a requirement of the airport’s commercial certificate, Freeman said. Once a year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires a tabletop ARFF disaster exercise, and once every three years, it requires a full-scale ARFF disaster exercise. Sunday’s drill was the latter.
Edgartown Fire and EMS, the Oak Bluffs Fire Department, Tisbury Fire and EMS, the West Tisbury Fire Department and Police Department, and Tri-Town Ambulance were among the participating agencies.