Planning for an air show involves preparing for a variety of
scenarios, including something as catastrophic as a mass casualty event.
A major accident response exercise Oct. 6 at Joint Base San
Antonio-Randolph, site of the 2015 JBSA Air Show and Open House this weekend,
tested the installation’s ability to handle such a crisis.
“During exercise JBSA 15-05, we conducted an air show MARE
involving mass casualties and hazardous materials, and evaluated Team JBSA’s
disaster response force’s ability to respond to the incident,” Michael Broeker,
502nd Air Base Wing Inspector General wing inspection team manager, said. “The
major scenario was simulating an F-16D aircraft crashing into the crowd,
causing major casualties.”
Broeker said the complex exercise required support from
nearby communities.
“The Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, City of San
Antonio Emergency Operations Center and 48 civilian hospitals received
simulated patients as part of the exercise,” he said. STRAC is an organization
that develops, implements and maintains the regional trauma and emergency
health care system for 22 counties.
The exercise, a coordinated effort of the JBSA disaster
response force, crisis action team, emergency operations center, 12th Flying
Training Wing, 59th Medical Wing, Brooke Army Medical Center, regional civilian
first responders and civilian hospitals, tested first and emergency responders’
abilities to respond to the scene, assess and treat injuries, and contain and
protect the scene of the incidents during the notification, response,
withdrawal and recovery phases.
Like all exercises, the air show MARE used role players as
victims, witnesses and family members of the victims to add realism and
variety.
Broeker said the communication process for an emergency
starts with incident notifications to first responders such as fire emergency
services and security forces as well as the command post, which is then
responsible for generating a report to the crisis action team and emergency
operations center. The fire chief typically serves as incident commander.
For the JBSA air show, the CAT will be stationed at
JBSA-Randolph and the EOC, as always, at JBSA-Lackland.
Broeker called the air show MARE “effective.”
“It highlighted a lot of good things we did effectively and
recognized some areas that we need to work on,” he said. “We want to make sure
we’re prepared for any eventuality that happens.
“The ultimate purpose is to be prepared if an aircraft crash
occurs,” Broeker said. “We practiced what we’d do if that happens.”