LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — It's not every day an airport's disaster response is put to the test, but it happened Wednesday in Lexington.
It wasn't a real emergency but a full-scale emergency exercise at Blue Grass Airport involving hundreds of people.
The exercise included 150 volunteers from central Kentucky, who showed up to help simulate an aircraft emergency. More than 300 people participated in total. The group had aviation students from Eastside Technical Center.
"I get to see how our first responders respond," Landon Lindsey said. "With me personally flying out here, I would like to know how safe I truly am."
"Training is huge in aviation," said Ryan Daley. "You train for everything, there's protocols for everything, and this just shows we're prepared."
More than 20 agencies were tested, from firefighters to healthcare workers. Volunteers acted as victims, using two school buses instead of an airplane to act out the emergency. This was the first time Blue Grass Airport has done the exercise since 2017 because of the pandemic. The Federal Aviation Administration requires the test every three years. It lasted several hours and did not impact airport operations.
"It's practice for the real thing," said Lauren Simmerman, the airport's community relations manager. "Personally, for me, I think it's an invaluable experience to go through the motions of what could take place if something were to happen."
Tragically, in 2006, something did happen. Last month marked 17 years since Comair Flight 5191 crashed at the airport, killing 49 people. Aviation students told LEX 18 they hope a crash never happens again, but they will be prepared if it does.
"It would help us determining response time, how operations will go down, and what we need to do," said Samuel Hester. "If we do unfortunately have an accident on the runway, we'll be able to learn how things will proceed."
