Hopkins Airport tests emergency preparedness with mock simulation

CLEVELAND (WJW) – Officials at Hopkins Airport held their triennial emergency preparedness training Wednesday morning.

The FAA-required training involves a real-world simulation where they test response times and communication between all of the involved parties.

“It’s just improving the communication with our partners and insuring that we’re all on the same page and we’re all working together in the event of an incident,” Michele Dynia said.

Dynia is a communications specialist for the airport. She explained that they have to do this training every three years and they switch up the scenario each time.

In Wednesday’s case, they also kept communication about what type of scenario they’d be facing would be quiet. That required more real-time reaction.

“When an incident happens, you’re sitting at your desk, you’re typing up a memo or an email and then all of a sudden something happens,” she said. “By just kind of springing it on people, it’s a little more realistic, and then you’ll get that realistic response from the people within the airport.”

The scenario they used was one where a Boeing 737 collided with a Beechcraft Conanza on the runway.

It required fire fighters to race to the runway prepared to put out flames. Then they moved over to the mock simulation area and began responding to volunteer victims who were staged with injuries.

At the same time, airport EMS and mutual aid from nearby agencies responded.

In the past, they’ve practiced scenarios related to a plane going off a runway, a plane crashing into a vehicle, bird strikes, drones flying too close to the airport, and many more.

Dynia said they always prepare for any possible issue that could happen at an airport.

Next year, they’ll do training at Burke Airport and then will be off for a year. However, Dynia explained that they never stop training and do tabletop exercises in off years.

She added that while they’ve been lucky to have very few issues at Hopkins Airport, they learn from other airports around the country from any issues they’ve faced.

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