Injuries fake, smoke and sirens real as emergency workers simulate airplane crash

By MATT TESSNEAR

Sun Journal Staff

The injuries and screams for help on the tarmac were fake, but the smoke and the rescue practice were real Saturday at a plane crash training drill at Coastal Carolina Regional Airport.

More than 50 people lay on the concrete about 9 a.m., bruised, bloody and bandaged. A 6-inch piece of metal stuck out of the stomach of David Warwick, a volunteer with Boy Scout Troop 13. A woman pretending to be pregnant asked for help for her baby. Eric Simmons, who is 10, had a 4-inch cut on his head. Some of his friends had calf bruises and cuts on their foreheads.

A cloud of smoke and a few sirens filled the air at the airport's old terminal near FedEx. Curtis King of the airport authority called 911 just after 9. The airport emergency team and crews from Craven County fire and rescue departments began to roll onto the scene.

It was practice, and the crews were trying to get better in case a real plane crashes, said Tom Braaten, director of the airport. Training workers from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point took a simulation plane to the airport for the drill.

"If we had a real crash, we'd have the control tower close down the airfield until we were under control," Braaten said. "All commercial airports have to do this every three years. We do tabletop exercises the other two years to get the same players together. The real thing is about how you work out the flow of communications."

The fire trucks rolled down Williams Road to the mock crash site. Ambulances went down Airport Road. Children, members of the Boy Scout troop and the Young Marines, were grunting and twitching on the ground when the New Bern-Craven County Rescue Squad arrived. They began screaming for help when the Cove City, Bridgeton and Tri-Community rescue squads and the Fairfield Harbour Community Emergency Response Team arrived.

Jacob Thorn, a member of the Young Marines, told workers he had head and arm damage.

"I'm just glad this thing's fake," said Jacob, who is 10. "I'd be crying and screaming like crazy if it weren't."

Fire hoses lined the roads around the old terminal as firemen doused the simulation plane with water. East Care, a medical helicopter from Pitt Memorial Hospital, flew in from the west side airport at 10:25 to simulate flying someone to the hospital.

Women from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro used makeup to create the wounds for the children and several adults. The children from the Boy Scouts and Young Marines were participating in community services projects.

Donald Grey and other firemen helped load Jacob Thorn and other people into ambulances that went to Craven Regional Medical Center, said Ira Whitford, the assistant director of Craven County Emergency Services. The hospital used the training to prepare for large numbers of patients in its emergency room.

"In a real situation, they'd be taking patients to Greenville, Lenoir, Onslow, everywhere," Whitford said. "It's going real well for a drill. A lot of the guys from different departments stayed at their stations today in a case of a real emergency. They'd all be coming over here pretty quick if this were a real crash."