It took fire chief and incident commander James Diaz quite a while before he got the accurate numbers of the passengers transported to the hospital and those who did not make it following the simulated plane crash at the Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting training pit at 9 a.m.
Airport manager Ed Mendiola said there was a “little delay” in transporting the surviving passengers due to unavailability of vehicles that could attend to the wounded victims.
Commonwealth Ports Authority Executive Director Efrain F. Camacho said communication and requisition of equipment must be improved.
Transportation Security Administration’s Leo Goode said information came in sporadically just like it would normally do in any type of a disaster.
The scenario
A Boeing 767 with 160 passengers on board banked to the right end of the ARFF training pit.
The pilot made an emergency crash landing after radioing the airport tower that he lost two engines due to a possible seabird strike.
A loud noise was heard and dark black smoke was seen coming from the crash site.
The force of impact ripped the fuselage into three pieces and several smaller loose parts.
The area of impact was littered with victims, debris, baggage and loose money.
The plane caught fire and the impact area was contaminated with jet fuel.
ARFF crew members responded to the scene and for the next few minutes, the Department of Public Safety, its fire division, the Emergency Management Office and the Department of Public Health started receiving calls from CPA’s emergency operations center informing them of the situation.
For Mendiola, the main goal was to take all the survivors to the hospital while for Diaz, it was to save lives and coordinate with other agencies.
Conducted every three years as mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration, the drill, according to Camacho, tested everybody’s capability to respond to a disaster scenario.
“There’s still room for improvements,” he said after the drill.
‘We did good’
Diaz congratulated everyone involved in the drill, especially the students of Kagman High School, Marianas High School and Saipan Southern High School who acted as the plane passengers.
Camacho said the drill was successful in the sense that everybody was prepared.
Mendiola said although they could not tell in the heat of the moment if what they were doing was right or wrong, “I think on CPA’s side, we did good — we did our part, we coordinated with other agencies.”
Goode said the strength that CPA’s emergency operations center showed during the drill was its ability to disseminate all the information that was coming in.
The center took charge of the situation successfully, he added.
Goode said this year’s drill was an improvement compared to those conducted in 2003 and 2006.
Camacho said the evaluation papers will be sent to the FAA which will then inform CPA whether it passed or failed.
The FAA will also tell CPA what areas need to be improved, he added.
