Fake Plane Crash Helps Prepare McClellan-Palomar Airport

It may have been a bus, but in the eyes of those participating in the emergency response drill at McClellan-Palomar Airport, it was the smoking wreckage of a plane.

"We had the bus available," said San Diego County Public Information Officer Michael Drake. "It's hard to have one of the owners of the airplanes volunteer a plane. In the accident scenario, both wings were actually torn off the plane. It looks like a bus, but it's really an airplane with the wings torn off."

The Oct. 1 drill, required every three years by the FAA, tested local response to a plane crash at the airport.

"Victims," played by Palomar College firefighting students covered in special effects makeup, were scattered around the scene, waiting to see if they would survive or be marked with a black "morgue" tag.

The tagging system is new, and Carlsbad Fire Department is the first to try it in San Diego County.

A red tag means a victim is critical and needs immediate attention. Yellow indicates serious but non life-threatening injuries, and green is for the walking wounded. The victims were then placed by color on the runway while they awaited hospital transport. The "dead" were marked with a black tag reading "Morgue."

"When we first arrive on scene, we're putting firefighters in harm's way and telling them to make critical decisions about how a patient looks right after a plane crash," said Carlsbad Fire Division Chief Chris Heiser. "That victim might look different 15 minutes later." The benefit of the new tagging system, he said, is that it allows for re-triage as the victim's condition improves or worsens.

The only drawback Heiser sees with this type of training is that it's artificial. "I can't send all the resources I need," he said. Carlsbad Fire may have only two ambulances available for a training exercise. In a real emergency, multiple ambulances and Mercy Air support would likely be used.

Artificial or not, the plane crash scenario was played out as realistically as possible, with a Carlsbad Police incident command post and a Red Cross family support area on scene.