POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI)– The Pocatello Regional Airport conducted a live emergency exercise with the Pocatello Police Department, Pocatello Fire Department, and Portnuef Medical Center on Wednesday morning.
The training exercise simulated a plane crash using a decommissioned NASA airliner with students from Idaho State University’s Aviation Mechanics Program playing the roles of injured crash victims to be rescued by firefighters and paramedics.
“It’s really important to put a drill on like this,” said Alan Evans, manager of Pocatello Regional Airport. “You hope you never have an incident of this magnitude, but it’s an opportunity to test yourself and see where your strengths are, where your weaknesses are.”
Evans said the airport is required to conduct full-scale live emergency drills every three years per Federal Aviation Administration protocol.
Wednesday’s drill was organized over several months with the help of Pocatello city, fire, and police leaders as well as Portneuf Medical Center, which took in the play-injured students to test the hospital and Life Flight’s emergency response capabilities.
