By Mark Munroe
Picture it: Your fire department is on the running card to the local airport, which may or may not have aircraft rescue fire fighting (ARFF) services of any kind. If it does, it could simply be the airport maintenance guy with a pickup truck and a skid unit on the back. For the purpose of this article, let’s say you have a fairly large airport with a limited ARFF unit. The bell goes off to respond to the airport, and you are told to stand by for an incoming flight with an unknown problem.
This is a fairly common event, and it could be anywhere from five minutes to an hour or more before this aircraft lands. As a fire officer, what should you be thinking about en route to the call? What kind of information should you be looking for and trying to obtain? More importantly, what are you about to face? Will it be much different from your daily routine?
Consider whether the pilot has declared an emergency. If so, he feels something seriously is wrong. If airport officials have asked for the ARFF equipment to stand by at the runway, they definitely feel something is wrong. Your next move, if time allows, might be to call for more resources to stand by.
Additional considerations include the following:
- What size aircraft is involved?
- How many passengers are on the plane?
- What resources do you have with you at this moment? What else might you need?
- Do you have enough ambulances?
- From how far away are these ambulances coming? Do you need to contact the local hospitals for standby?
- What is your water supply like? Are there hydrants on the airfield? If not, where is your closest water supply?
- Is your foam supply adequate? Where can you get more if you need it?
- Do you have enough personnel to do whatever job may be needed–rescue, fire suppression, or both?
The Scenario
Let’s say you are dealing with a large-frame aircraft in this scenario. To make it more challenging, it just cartwheeled down the runway. Your mind is racing a mile per minute; pieces of plane are flying everywhere. Your adrenaline is pumping. You begin to realize that you are about to face something you never experienced before. Are you ready?
Your first thought is to step on the gas and drive the apparatus toward the biggest piece of fuselage left after it stops rolling down the runway. Sounds logical, right? There’s a good chance you may shred your tires in the debris field, which will be getting bigger and bigger the closer you get to the scene. Meanwhile, you will be dodging debris and body parts; smoke and flames will be rolling out of what was once a large jet plane.
You will also more than likely encounter survivors coming toward you, especially if your warning lights and siren are on. The people will likely head for the sound of the siren. You come to a complete stop for fear of running over any survivors. Seriously injured people are around you; they are asking for help. Some are in shock, and some are wandering aimlessly.
A smell of jet fuel is in the air. Your junior officers are requesting instructions, directions, and more help. In the meantime, you need to get to the main fuselage, which is on fire and contains trapped passengers.
The Strategy
In light of these details, let’s reexamine the considerations listed above. What ever happened to those resources? Are there enough ambulances? Who is escorting them out to you, and how are they getting to you? Do they have to make their way through the debris field, or are they staged?
Have your engine companies been able to reach to the fuselage to begin fire suppression and rescue, or have they, too, been bogged down by survivors? If they have made it that far, what do they have for water supply? Do any of your units carry foam of any kind? If so, were these units on the original box assignment? How do your companies resupply their foam? Has anyone been able to start triage? All the survivors need to be rounded up and worked on.
Is help coming? Where is it coming from? What is its estimated time of arrival? Hospitals need to be notified. Your dispatch center needs to start thinking about bringing in extra dispatchers. Has the police department been called to secure the perimeter? The press will be swarming the airport.
Personnel Considerations
How are your firefighters reacting to the scene? What are they facing, seeing, thinking, and so forth? Are they in shock? Are they able to function? Do they have what they need to perform their tasks?
In terms of EMS operations, have they protected themselves by exercising universal precautions? Are they being careful to avoid being cut by the jagged edges of the aircraft skin, which can be sharp? Are they aware that they should not necessarily disturb the scene but should maintain its integrity for the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigation?
Do you have a mass-casualty incident plan in place, and has it been tried out in an exercise? This may be one of the greatest challenges your department has ever dealt with.
Post-Incident Considerations
It’s the end of the incident. All survivors have been triaged and sent to local hospitals, and companies are starting to regroup. At this time, your thoughts go to your crews: Were any of your people exposed to jet fuels, bodily fluids, or other potentially harmful substances? Is any of the equipment contaminated? If so, can it be decontaminated? More importantly, how are your people doing? Are they showing signs of stress? Should you make arrangements for critical incident stress debriefing?
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This article has barely scratched the surface of the many considerations chief officers must address when responding to incidents at airports. Are you prepared, ready, and equipped? If not, consider reaching out to ARFF departments to talk with their training personnel and line officers. Train with them as much as possible to get an understanding of the challenges presented by this type of emergency. The airline industry is growing each year; even in this bad economy, people are still flying. Take the time to think about your response area–what you have and what you might encounter the next time the bell rings.
Mark Munroe is the assistant chief and division commander of training and EMS at Massport Fire/Rescue at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the chairman of the Northeast ARFF Training Officers Consortium and the Region 1 manager for the ARFF Working Group. He is a certified ARFF instructor and firefighter and has served on ARFF curriculum committees. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and curriculum development and is a private consultant for a number of homeland security consulting firms around the country.
