LIHU‘E — It could happen. “Every day, someone you love goes through this airport,” Scotty Sagum said while briefing more than 100 high school students Tuesday. “If something like this happens, we need to be ready.” The students were part
LIHU‘E — It could happen.
“Every day, someone you love goes through this airport,” Scotty Sagum said while briefing more than 100 high school students Tuesday. “If something like this happens, we need to be ready.”
The students were part of the Lihu‘e Airport Triennial Exercise, a necessary test of the Lihu‘e Airport’s Emergency Plan to maintain its Federal Aviation Administration certification, said Tammy Mori of the state’s Transportation Department.
During the test, the Lihu‘e Airport’s many different departments — including operations, maintenance, and security — collaborated with the Transportation Security Administration and the county’s Civil Defense, police, fire and ambulance services to rectify a situation.
Tuesday’s scenario involved mass casualties and fatalities, played out by the high school students from Waimea, Kapa‘a and Kaua‘i.
A commercial airliner, declaring an in-flight emergency shortly after taking off from Lihu‘e, turns around and attempts a landing the wrong way, utilizing a runway normally reserved for takeoffs during tradewinds.
This results in the plane striking the airport’s localizer, a bank of lights on the runway, damaging its undercarriage.
Bodies littered one of the airport’s fields, many showing signs of being impaled by shrapnel caused by the plane when it flipped over after striking the localizer.
During the response, which involved Crash Fire and Rescue trucks moving to extinguish the blaze before responding to the victims, Airport Manager Manu Crabbe and other department leaders and officials monitored the scenario from one of the airport’s offices equipped with communication equipment.
The fire extinguished, other departments and agencies became involved as Kaua‘i Fire Department trucks arrived, sirens blazing, along with several ambulances, cargo trucks from a tour bus company, and Lihu‘e Airport Maintenance.
“Help is on its way,” the speakers from the CFR trucks repeated while responders reacted to the scenario.
Joining the ranks of role players, the Kaua‘i Community College nursing department had 30 of its first-year and six second-year students helping American Medical Response paramedics assessing medical conditions at the triage area, moving victims to various locations based on the severity of their injuries.
“Get them out,” a Lihu‘e CFR fireman bellowed. “If they’re not breathing, leave them and take care of the ones that are alive.”
The live exercise took place from 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., Tuesday.
Mori said the Triennial Exercise is required by the FAA every three years.
