‘We trained for this’: Recent drill helped Louisville airport crews rapidly respond to plane crash
By Addie Meiners
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Airport first responders are talking about what it was like to be on the scene of the UPS plane crash less than a minute after the plane hit the ground.
Just two weeks prior, they had been at a full-scale training exercise which prepared them for such emergencies.
“Most airport emergency response personnel go their entire career without seeing something like this. We just never dreamed it would happen two weeks after a full scale exercise,” said Chief Josh Grimes of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority. “It makes you think twice, looking up at an aircraft now.”
Eight members of the airport’s public safety team were dispatched to the scene by air traffic controllers, who witnessed the crash unfold from the tower. Within thirty seconds of impact, the crew was on their way.
While crews had prepared for the scenario, Grimes said, there was nothing that could have prepared them for what they were met with at the scene.
“When they first arrived on the scene, they were met with a huge wall of fire. They could tell that they had burning oil on the ground. A lot of burning oil. Huge column of smoke. And they obviously had live electrical wires down that were arching,” said Grimes.
The department had recently purchased two new specialty fire trucks, designed for responding to plane crashes. Those $2M trucks allowed first responders to shoot water or foam while driving, helped prevent the situation from worsening.
They practiced this maneuver emergency scenarios practiced during the training exercise on Oct. 21, as well as coordinating dozens of agencies to respond together.
“That’s why we work together with all the other responders, is to prepare how a unified command system would go, how our emergency operations center would be structured, how the responders would work together. Those things, they paid off,” he said.
Grimes said they are now offering members of their department counseling to help deal with the aftermath of the crash.
The department is also conducting a post action review.
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