Emergency Plan Exercise 2011

Baltimore Washington International Airport Emergency Plan Exercise (EPLEX) 2011 Saturday, May 7th, 2011 Purpose: EPLEX provides BWI airport and its mutual aid partners the opportunity to test and evaluate the Airport Emergency Plan (AEP), departmental procedures, personnel, and equipment to identify weaknesses, procedural gaps, and best practices.

Scenario: On Saturday mourning, May 7th at 0900L, Jet Blue Fit DC-10-30 while departing Runway 33L, en route to LGB, sustained catastrophic engine failure to #3 engine, causing aircraft to veer off RWY surface and rest on grass/pavement surfaces West of RWY15R-33L, South of RWY 04-22. Fire and smoke is visible coming from the right side engine/wing. 

By the time the first fire unit arrives on scene, the fire has already started to penetrate and spread into the interior of the tail section. (25) Passengers will succumb to smoke inhalation and burns in the interior of the aircraft. of the (75) persons who escape the aircraft, 915) will suffer moderate to severe smoke inhalation. When triaged, the survivors will consist of (15) "Immediate," (23) "Delayed," and (37) "Minor/Uninjured. (10) of the Uninjured are covered in Jet-A (fuel) and will need to be decontaminated.

Goals:

Meet the FAA's Airport Certification Program, Part 139, requirement to hold a full-scale Emergency Planning  Exercise (EPLEX) every three years.
Test BWI AEP.

Test the internal and external communication necessary to respond to an e emergency at the airport. 

My Reflections as a Player (crash victim with lacerations and a broken arm):

Note: For comparison, here is the same emergency exercise from 2008.

1. Social media is EVERYWHERE. Victims, responders, American Red Cross workers, BWI Airport employees. MD state troopers, EMTs, firefighters, "family and friends" all players and all emergency management professionals at the exercise...EVERYONE had social media (smart phones with links to Twitter, Twitpic, Facebook, YoiuTube, etc.) available...and used it.

For example, there years ago I played a six-year old child with any eyeball hanging out. The guy with the problem eyeball this year took photos of his injury all day and sent it via text to dozens of people.  That's the new world we live in.

Here is a website to help you deal with that reality. Dealing with Social Media in a Crisis

In the real world and in exercises, be ready for your event to go viral...fast. With millions of smart phones out there with cameras and video recorders, much of what you say and do will end up on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others.

Only three years ago I wrote an article called Free Web Safety & Emergency Tools for The American Civil Defense Association (TACDA). In it, I presented the case for first responders, emergency management professionals, and policy makers to use free social media, like Twitter, Facebook, You Tube to mitigate, plan for, respond to, and recover from events. I stated:
"All these social media tools are even more powerful
when used together. The new social media will revolutionize your work world."
Judging by the number of "victims" at this exercise who were instantly sharing pictures, videos and words with the larger world, this is a reality that must be taken seriously in all emergency planning these days.
2. We're getting better at emergency management. I've been in and around this field for about 30 years. Many areas that were once haphazard (triage comes to mind) are now better organized and coordinated. The first responders have always been great at providing assistance, but now they have technology and software tools that, when used wisely, save more lives. 
For example, a large truck with dozens of high tech stretchers was able to preposition using sophisticated software that connect it to a base mobile communications unit (that looked like something out of Star Trek with all the antennas and satellite dishes).
3. It's all about people. I heard a dozen human stories too long to record here. The technology, as great as it is, must never blind us to the humans behind it, in front of it, using it, and having it used on them.
For example, one women I got to know in the moulage room ended up being a severely injured "victim."
She played the part, very well. When she would scream, many participants and professionals went to her help. Imagine that.

The power of a scream.

When she continued to scream at St. Agne's Hospital emergency room, they took it for a few minutes and then were about to give her a sedative. With all that treatment technology in that modern medical room, her screaming got their attention very quickly. It's still about humans, and their behavior, before, during, and after an event.

Thanks to the Emergency Management Pros
As always, my thanks to the men and women who do this for a living. I was only a bit player. As such, I had the fun without the responsibility.

When I saw how seriously they approached their tasks, I was filled with admiration and pride. They're good. Very good. And we should never, ever take them for granted.So me and my family to them and their family's...THANKS!

Emergency Exercise - Airplane Crash

I offer this EPLEX simulated airplane crash emergency exercise post and another on this blog in hopes they help other Americans to exercise to reduce the loss of life, injury, and property that results from such events. Disasters, man-made and natural, are a part of everyday life. If we are smart and learn from history, we prepare for them so that we reduce the cost in life and property when they occur.
Click for public health emergency preparedness tools and resources here.

N.B.: My deep thanks to all the professional first responders, planners, American Red Cross personnel and others who made this exercise possible and who, day after day, protect me and my family through their dedication, hard work, and grit. You are much appreciated.
Background: On May 10, 2008, I participated as a "victim" in the Baltimore Washington International Air port's 2008 Triennial Emergency Exercise (EPLEX).
This exercise involved many emergency organizations and took place at BWI Airport, so it is beyond the means of many first responders. However, the ideas, strategy, planning, and tasks shown here may be useful to help others to develop and conduct their own exercises, and is offered in that spirit. Given the advance planning and organization that went into it, the emergency plan scenario section below should be very useful to emergency workers.

Note: As this was a NIMS exercise, anyone who conducts NIMS exercises may want to look into Breakaway Games NIMS exercise game.

My Character: A Six-Year Old with a Facial Injury
I played a six-year old child with a "facial injury" which the moulage artist (Karen L. Berg of the Queen Anne's County Department of Emergency Services) made up as an injury that can happen...an eye-ball out of it's socket.
When the emergency responders first appeared on the incident scene, they walked across the incident zone and called out for all who could walk to try to get over to the staging area for medical care and transport to a safe area.
It was classic triage. By clearing those who could walk, they returned to tag me and others who were seriously injured as "red." They brought a stretcher by to carry me across the field to an ambulance. I weigh 200 pounds dry...but it was raining and I was wet. They picked me up, struggled with me...and here is the miracle...one turned to lift me to a carrier which upset the balance. I was in the air about to go down...but the other three strained and struggled and breathed hard and no doubt pulled muscles...but made certain I never hit the ground.
I was an adult, this was "just" an exercise and they could have let me go...but they didn't.

I heard how hard they breathed as they struggled to right me and get me to the staging area for transport to the mock hospital tent. The next group quickly put a trauma bandage around my eye and I only heard the sounds of all the first responders...and they were all breathing hard.
It struck me then that if they will make this hard an effort for an exercise, imagine how much harder they will work if a plane really did fall from sky and casualties were littered all over the runway. (Kurt Vonnegut had it right in "God Bless You Mister Rosewater" where he said that if foreigners who hate us ever strike the politicians will bow before them but the fire fighters will flee to the mountains with their rifles and defend our freedoms.)

Emergency Plan Scenario, Rules, and Who Was InvolvedAs they describe the exercise: "The triennial EPLEX is a critical element in providing the mulit-agency training necessary to ensure high levels of proficiency on the part of all fo the professional fire, rescue,emergency medical, law enforcement, airport operations,and airline operations personnel that are required to respond to actual emergencies at the Airport.
What always strikes me about first responders is that they are common sense, salt-of-the-earth, very hard working, good, good people, and this exercise proved it once again.

Click this link to learn about a Volunteer Mobilization Center (VMC) which has been well tested nationwide and works.

Everyone involved in the exercise (American Red Cross, State Police, BWI, FAA, FBI, NTSB, TSA, DHS, MdTAP, BWI Airport Fire & Rescue, Anne Arundel County Fire & Rescue, Baltimore County Fire & Rescue, Baltimore City Fire & Rescue, Howard County Fire & Rescue, MD Transportation Authority Police, American Airlines [and even the funeral directors who are authorized to transport bodies during a mass casualty event] did a first-rate job. I sleep better at night knowing all these professionals are out there.
For more detail, click the pages below to enlarge them.

I would especially like to thank:

• All the anonymous first responders, emergency workers, state police, administrators, mortuary professionals, and others who improve the world daily...as here.
• Karen L. Berg of the Queen Anne's County Department of Emergency Services who did such an excellent moulage job on my eye that made me the "guy with the eye" during the exercise.
• James G. Anastasioin of the Maryland State Police Aviation Command, a fellow Carroll County CERT member, who keeps the emergency helicopters flying (one of which took my burned wife to the Johns Hopkins burn unit when our house burned down)
• The firemen and women who redoubled and helped hold me up when I almost went down.

On behalf of the Red Cross, I would like to sincerely thank all participants of the BWI Airport Exercise on Saturday.
Over 100 volunteers showed up in the rain at 6 o'clock in the morning to help.
Your contribution was critical to testing local emergency response plans.
Should an actual disaster occur, several hundred volunteers, administrators, and response workers now are more experienced and prepared to respond.
When someone asks you what you did this weekend, you can show them this news coverage -
http://wjz.com/local/BWI.Thurgood.Marshall.2.720886.html
Bethany Brown
Readiness Associate
American Red Cross, Central Maryland Chapter

Phone: 410-624-2055
4800 Mt. Hope Drive
Baltimore, MD 21215