PORT AUTHORITY OF NY & NJ CONDUCTS EMERGENCY RESPONSE EXERCISE AT LAGUARDIA AIRPORT

LaGuardia Airport, Queens, NY, Saturday, June 21, 2014 - There was a scenario devised for the event – a piece of metal got caught in a jet engine upon departure and the plane crash landed on takeoff. 145 victims were played by live people of the NYPD, Port Authority employees as well as some FBI agents. A container was set afire to simulate the downed plane. American Airlines donated use of the Boeing 737-823 plane for the training exercise.

According to Jim Munday, PA OEM and Senior Manager Emergency Operations (he’s #3 in .the pecking order) there were 4 prisoners on board (deportees/detainees) and his armed Air Marshall escort was killed in the crash. One surviving prisoner tried to escape and was apprehended. There were 145 victims and 25 dead that were simulated with dummies.

The purpose of the drill was to test the coordination effort with the different agencies. NYPD, FDNY and NYC Dept of Corrections wanted to join in the exercise to make it an all-inclusive coordinated training event within a larger scenario. Passengers as participants were given cards that defined their individual roles.

Those injured within the plane were ‘packaged’ and allowed to walk down the stairway then ‘repackaged’ as survivors. Participants didn’t know the whole backstory, just their individual roles as everything would be unfolded as a surprise, which is what a catastrophic event like this would be.

It was a learning experience for over 450 1^st responders for a domestic event. 18 days before this simulation, a similar exercise was held at JFK to simulate an international event. The idea was to test the leadership, communication and organization of the 1^st responders.