WHEN A FLIGHT GOES BAD - AIRCRAFT CRASHES CAN BE TAXING FOR BASE AND COMMUNITY

Published May 4, 2008
By Lt. Col. RON WHITTLE
Former chief of safety for the 47th Flying Training Wing at Laughlin AFB, Texas, and is a T-1A inst

Laughlin AFB, Texas -- Aircraft mishaps are emotionally charged events where a base's response is almost always hampered by unforeseen factors that constitute the "fog of war." At the very least, a base's response to a mishap can be chaotic. But without proper preparation, a mishap response scenario could devolve into complete mayhem.

Not that long ago, Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, and its local community confronted these challenges while responding to an off-base T-38 crash. The crash, which took place in December 2005, resulted from a catastrophic bird strike while flying a low-level approximately 30 miles from the airfield. Crashing into an open field, the aircraft stayed mostly intact but was a total loss. Both of the pilots ejected safely but did receive injuries.

Orchestration of both the initial life-saving response and the follow-on safety investigation proved difficult. This difficulty was magnified with the distances involved. The local county law enforcement, fire department and emergency medical services were the first on scene with Laughlin AFB responders arriving about an hour afterward.

The remote location of the crash challenged the base in terms of timely communication with responders, transportation, security, logistical support, and command and control. In the end, Laughlin performed well, but our experience did punctuate the value of preparation.

The leadership of Laughlin AFB and the town of Del Rio, Texas, understood this value when they decided to stage a major off-base aircraft accident exercise this past fall.

Early in the planning stages, leadership's intent was to involve both on- and off-base emergency response services to include local fire department, law enforcement, and emergency medical services organizations, as well as customs and border protection, special rescue and aviation resources. With Laughlin leading the Air Force in migrating to the new Air Force Incident Management System in 2007 and having just successfully validated the AFIMS concept in its recent Air Education and Training Command Operational Readiness Inspection, base officials knew we were ready to push our emergency response capabilities to the next level. Additionally, leadership determined that we would extend the exercise well beyond where bases typically terminate scenarios to test our safety response processes.

The exercise scenario involved a midair collision between two
T-6 aircraft in the Laughlin traffic pattern with an ejection and crash occurring off base near Del Rio and a crippled aircraft returning to base. To add realism to the scenario, we used old aircraft wreckage and created a debris field complete with earth scrapes for the crash scene.

To simulate the ejection scene, we used actual parachutes, a mannequin to simulate a deceased pilot, and a border patrol volunteer to simulate an injured pilot. We also used two trusted agent T-6 aircrews and aircraft to serve as the simulated crippled aircraft and the search and rescue aircraft.

Lastly, we positioned exercise evaluation team members in key locations to include the T-6 runway supervisory unit, control tower, supervisor of flying, radar approach control and T-6 on-duty supervisor to carefully manage development of the scenario.

We kicked off the scenario through simulated radio call exercise "injects" consisting of "mayday" calls from the crashing aircraft. This set into motion a number of initial response actions, including use of the trusted agent search and rescue aircraft to locate the ejection scene, crash net activation and fire department dispatch. It also triggered notifications to the supervisor of flying and command post, as well as squadron-, group- and wing-level leadership.

We also simulated stop-launch of aircraft and stood up the emergency operations center -- formally known as the crisis action team. Subsequent 911-call exercise injects in Del Rio prompted off-base emergency responses to include the fire department to extinguish the crash scene fire and law enforcement to provide initial crash and ejection scene security. Additionally, a customs and border protection rescue unit was launched to locate and rescue the injured pilot, and emergency medical services transported the injured pilot to medical facilities.

After conducting simulated controllability checks, the crippled T-6 aircraft recovered back to base and suffered a simulated gear failure upon taxiing clear of the runway. This twist in the scenario compelled the on-base fire department to conduct an emergency extraction of one of the pilots and maintenance to perform an aircraft lift to clear the T-6 from the runway area.

If this wasn't enough, we extended the scenario into the night and next day to test wing safety's mishap response plan. Per this plan and within two hours of the crash, we formed, briefed and issued equipment to an interim safety board. Subsequently, the board secured aircraft and aircrew records, conducted eyewitness interviews, coordinated toxicological testing for applicable mishap participants, and conducted an initial walk-through of the crash scene.

The next day, the board met to set evidence collection priorities and then accompanied base civil engineering and audio visual to survey and photograph the crash scene. They also coordinated customs and border protection helicopter support to conduct aerial photography of the crash scene.

Of course, the focus of the interim safety board was to collect and preserve evidence (especially perishable evidence) in preparation for the follow-on safety investigation board. The safety response portion of the exercise was terminated with an interim safety board-to-safety investigation board changeover brief late on the second day of the scenario.

This exercise proved extremely complex to plan and execute. Careful attention had to be paid to operational risk management principles in anticipating and mitigating risks with how this complex scenario would develop.

We had to keep in mind that there was always a danger of the exercise taking on a life of its own.

Overall, the exercise did its job and was an incredible learning experience, especially from a safety office perspective with the opportunity to actually practice nearly all aspects of the initial safety response to a major aircraft accident. Even more so, it allowed us to strengthen ties with our downtown emergency responders and establish a more common mindset for how mishap response will be managed in the future.

More specifically, we identified corrective actions to better synchronize our efforts and correct problems experienced in past mishaps and with this exercise. In the end, the benefit was well worth the effort. With proper education, training and periodic exercises, a base and surrounding community's integrated mishap response can be like a well-oiled machine ... even in a worst case scenario like a major aircraft mishap.