**JUST AN EXERCISE**
This morning, Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport hosted a full scale exercise simulating a plane crash. Upwards of a 100 first responders were there practicing how they would handle a situation of this size.
“The FAA requires air carrier airports to conduct a full scale exercise once every three years. And we were do for our exercise this year,” Steve Nicholson, the Deputy Director Of Operations and Safety said.
The fake plane crash had volunteer actors made up with fake injuries and tagged with different stories for police, EMS, and fire to respond to. These actors were then taken to the hospital just as if it were a real case scenario.
“They started out at the airport and there bring us a large amount of patients that we wouldn’t normally see in a short amount of time,” Vanessa Milam, Nurse Manager at Covenant Adults Division.
Several of the first responders knew there was going to be an exercise but were challenged to figure out why the fake plane crashed in the first place.
“We found a few things we know we need to fine tune I think are something that a list I would put out here. But as I walked away, as horrific as this situation would be, the City of Lubbock is going in the right direction preparing for something like this,” Sridhar Natarjan, Chief Medical Examiner for Lubbock County said.
**JUST AN EXERCISE**