Published: August 28, 2008 11:17 pm            

Crash simulated at Grissom

Drill is part of disaster response training

A large plume of white smoke rose from the flight line at Grissom Joint Air Reserve Base Thursday morning after a civilian DC-8 aircraft collided with a military KC-135 Stratotanker from the 434th Airfueling Wing on the ground.

The accident prompted emergency personnel to respond and check for injuries.

The event, which looked real from a distance, actually was a basewide exercise drill to train officials in case of a real civilian/military plane accident on the base, Lt. Col. Gary Lockard said.

The drill was part of ongoing disaster response training program at the base.

“We’ve never had this type of scenario before,” he said. “With Montgomery Aviation here, it’s a chance for us to find out what would happen if a civilian aircraft crashed into a military aircraft.”

In March, Grissom opened the base to civilian aircraft, with Montgomery Aviation managing the day-to-day civil operations at Grissom JARB.

As part of Thursday’s training scenario, Grissom first responders and fire trucks from the Grissom Fire Department, raced to the flight deck where they found the two planes had collided as they were getting ready to take off.

“One aircraft was taxiing and got in the way of the other aircraft,” Lockard said.

Several people on both planes acted as if they were injured and received treatment.

Since the base does not have a hospital on the base, Lockard said medical workers had to set up a make-shift triage area to stabilize the victims until they could transport them to either Duke Memorial Hospital or a Kokomo hospital, depending on the severity of the injuries.

Next, officials secured the scene of the crash and made sure there weren’t any explosives or dangerous chemicals on either plane.

Communication during the disaster and response times will be evaluated to see if it can be done better and quicker, Lockard said.

“Hopefully nothing like this happens,” he said. “But if it does, we have a good plan already in place.”

        

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