Long
Beach Airport practices largest Homeland
Security drills
By
Austin Mitchell
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Eyeballs out of their sockets and severed limbs were the sight during an emergency
training re-enactment on a Jet Blue Airbus A320 Saturday as the Long Beach
Airport Bureau conducted its triennial disaster exercise: a full-scale Homeland
Security Exercise and Evaluation (HSEEP) demonstration mandated by the Federal
Aviation Administration.
“
The exercise began with a tip or report of suspicious actions in a Boeing building
at the north end of the airport. We then demonstrate a simulated terrorist
attack by ramming a fuel truck loaded with a bomb into a passenger loaded airplane,” said
airport spokeswoman Sharon Diggs- Jackson. “The suspects are apprehended
and the passengers are immediately attended to and moved to the mobile medical
facility near the crash scene.”
“
Today there is more than 28 agencies and 400 safety, law enforcement, and airport
personnel as well as 200 volunteers are participating in today’s exercises,” said
J.L Reeb, battalion chief of the Long Beach Crash Response Team. “We
are performing one of the largest homeland security training exercises ever.”
Other participating agencies included Long Beach Police, Fire, Public Works
and Technology Services Departments, Federal Aviation Administration, FBI,
National Transportation Safety Board, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
and Emergency Medical Service, the U.S. Army, Ninth Civil Support Team, and
the American Red Cross.
Additionally, nine local medical centers, including Long Beach Memorial Medical
Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center and Community Hospital, participated
in Saturday’s events. Away from the reproduced crash site, medical personal
set up a mobile field hospital center to receive and treat the wounded away
from the site.
“
This type of triage location we have set up here is exactly what you would
see in a real life situation. We have to be able to understand our capabilities
as well as our shortcomings,” said Kathy Crow, incident commander and
emergency coordinator.
“
If we are not organized today during a simulation than how will be able to
a real emergency and today I think we can consider this drill a success.”
Among the 200 volunteers was Cal State Long Beach pre-nursing student Barbara
Brown.
“
I was given the name“Michelle Brown and I was diagnosed with a contusion
to the forehead with recurrent unconsciousness and frequent vomiting,” Brown
said. “This is great to be a part of and I had been informed by the red
cross of this opportunity to volunteer, I really think this helps the community
to come together and trust someone who you may never have met before in your
life to aide you during a life threatening situation.”
According Sharon Diggs-Jackson , evaluators from the FAA, National Transportation
Safety Board and other agencies reviewed the exercise and will write a written
report. A debriefing session will be held this week.
|
