First responders, volunteers practice emergency techniques during staged event at Cedar City airport

Written by Jeff Richards
August 17, 2022

CEDAR CITY — A full-scale mock disaster drill designed to give emergency responders hands-on practice in dealing with a mass-casualty event unfolded at Cedar City Regional Airport on Tuesday evening.

Rescuers evacuate and treat passengers during a mock disaster drill at Cedar City Regional Airport, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 16, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

The scenario, which involved some three dozen volunteer “victims,” was designed to simulate a runway crash between a small passenger jet airliner and a helicopter. 

An old school bus served as the airplane’s fuselage, which had 34 passengers aboard. A short distance away, the shell of a helicopter contained six dummies representing deceased victims, plus one survivor with critical injuries.

At approximately 7:30 p.m., the ignition of some solid rocket fuel sent large bursts of flames and clouds of smoke into the sky, signaling the “crash” between the two aircraft and the beginning of the drill.

First to respond was a large Oshkosh Striker 1500 airport rescue fire truck, which quickly sprayed water on the flames.

Soon thereafter, numerous fire engines, ambulances and law enforcement vehicles began to arrive in preparation for a rescue effort to help passengers exit the bus and treat them for their “injuries.”

Many of the passenger “victims” had realistic-looking moulage makeup applied and had been given instructions to act as if they had a particular injury or set of symptoms. They were triaged into three different groups depending on the severity of their make-believe wounds. 

Mock disaster drill at Cedar City Regional Airport, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 16, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

The first wave of passengers that exited the bus were those who could walk out on their own. They were taken over to a green tarp, where they sat and received treatment for minor injuries. The remaining passengers, who ended up going to either the yellow (moderate) or red (critical) tarps, were helped off the bus by firefighters and treated by paramedics.

Airport manager Nick Holt said the drill is a mandatory event undertaken every three years, as required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“It’s a requirement for the airport, in order to keep its commercial airport operating certificate,” Holt said.

Airport operations specialist Tyler Galetka said he and others have been planning the event over the past six months.

“We had a lot of planning meetings. We got a lot of entities involved and a lot of input from critical players,” he said.

Specifically, he said Tuesday night’s exercise was meant to follow the scenario of what might happen if a SkyWest CRJ200 jet collided with an SUU Aviation helicopter “and how we would respond to that and evaluate the response.”

Rescuers evacuate and treat passengers during mock disaster drill at Cedar City Regional Airport, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 16, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

“There’s always hiccups in these drills,” Galetka added. “There’s always loss of communication and breakdowns. And that’s why we do it. The FAA wants us to do this, so we can evaluate it, see what’s wrong and fix it for when a real scenario happens and to be prepared for it.”

Cedar City Fire Department had approximately three dozen firefighters respond to the incident, with several fire engine trucks and other apparatus. Several Gold Cross Ambulance crews and paramedics also responded, as did personnel from Cedar City Police, Iron County Sheriff’s Office, Iron County Emergency Management, Southern Utah University and Intermountain Healthcare.

Also participating were Cedar City Regional Airport and Transportation Safety Administration staff, along with SkyWest Airlines and SphereOne Aviation. Local ham radio operators and other volunteers also provided support.

Two medical helicopters also responded, one from Intermountain Life Flight and one from Air Methods Mercy Air. 

“Life Flight landed on scene and participated until they were paged out on another call,” Holt noted, adding, “Classic Helicopters were also en route when they received a page and were not able to make it to the airport.”

Additionally, a MedEx Air One fixed-wing aircraft out of Nevada also loaded a patient and took off from the runway during the simulation.

“What this exercise does is bring all the agencies together to address if an incident at the airport were to happen,” Cedar City spokesperson Gabrielle Costello said afterward. “We have victims that are played by community members, and just simulate (so that) if something were to happen, how we’d deal with it and how we would manage our resources.”

“It’s a great opportunity for all of us to work together and work out those kinks so that we can respond as effectively as possible,” Costello added.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

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