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Aircraft Emergency Landing Exercise Held At Naval Air Station Jacksonville

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS091105-07
Release Date: 11/5/2009 1:12:00 PM

From Naval Air Station Jacksonville Public Affairs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- Hundreds of military and civilian personnel participated in the Oct. 29 emergency drill at Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, when a four-engine P-3C Orion aircraft assigned to VP-30 was forced to land with a collapsed nose gear.

"It appears that command and control communications at the station's emergency operations center (EOC) performed as expected. Our enterprise land mobile radio network also worked well, enabling different commands to monitor and communicate with each other through a single system of hand-held radios," NAS Jacksonville Emergency Management Officer Ray Edmond said.

At the EOC, Edmond worked with NAS Jacksonville Executive Officer Capt. Jeffrey Maclay, as well as incident commanders from air operations, crash crew, fire and rescue, Naval Hospital Jacksonville, public works, Fleet and Family Support Center, environmental department, safety and public affairs/media information.

Bob Irwin, deputy emergency manager at Commander Navy Region Southeast, was an observer at the EOC.

"I liked the teamwork that was exhibited during this exercise. First responders worked well with corpsmen to triage and transport victims for hospital care. The integration of the response effort was noteworthy," said Irwin.

"In addition to a hard landing that resulted in various injuries to the P-3C operators, the scenario included an environmental issue where leaking hydraulic fluid flows into a storm drain that empties into the St. Johns River," said Jim Butters, NAS Jacksonville installation training officer.

"So, in addition to our crash crew, fire/rescue and medical personnel responding to the aircraft – our NAS Jax Environmental Department Hazmat Spill Response Team simultaneously worked to remediate the environmental issue," said Butters.

Air Operations Boathouse personnel worked with environmental staff to deploy a network of booms in the St. Johns River to contain the simulated hydraulic fluid flowing from the storm drain. The exercise also included simulated calls to local and state regulatory agencies.

NAS Jacksonville Commanding Officer Capt. Jack Scorby Jr. said that the exercise tested the station's readiness – and its ability to respond promptly and properly through an integrated, team approach.