A large emergency response exercise was recently held at the Vernal Regional Airport, offering training to local emergency response professionals. Vernal City shared that the primary scenario of the exercise included a simulated mock-up of a plane that was staged to have crashed, rolled over, and caught fire. “We essentially pretend that our commercial airplane crashes and we have to figure out who’s responding, how we’re supposed to work, and what the function is,” said Jesseka Goodrich with Operations and Maintenance at the Vernal Regional Airport. Inter-agency communication and coordination was the main focus of the drill. “We had to figure out what scenarios we wanted to cover and why,” said Ken Campbell, Director of the Vernal Regional Airport. While a plane crash would certainly be enough to manage, the drill also included a fire on the airfield and a simulated active shooter incident within the terminal, making best use of the time to practice all together. This level of full-scale training only takes place about once every three years. Well done to all the local professionals who organized and participated in this important event.
