CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The 145th Airlift Wing and the Charlotte Fire Department executed an aircraft mishap exercise near the North Carolina Air National Guard base March 6, 2022.
The exercise simulated the crash of a T-1 aircraft with four passengers on the North Carolina Air National Guard landing ramp.
“The fire department conducts an exercise every three years, but it has been a very long time since the wing as a whole has come together to conduct an exercise like this,” said Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Lazaroski, 145th Civil Engineering Squadron fire chief.
Lt. Col. Patrick N. Cannon, 145th Operations Group, director of inspections, said it was the first time since the 1990s that the entire wing had come together to execute an exercise of this kind.
Many entities had a hand in the exercise. The 145th Civil Engineering Squadron Fire Department and the Charlotte Fire Department put out fires, mitigated hazards and searched for survivors. The 145th Security Forces Squadron set up a cordon to control access to the crash site.
Mortuary affairs are handled by the 145th Force Support Squadron, taking victims to the clinic or an off-base hospital depending on the severity of the injuries.
The 145th Civil Engineering Squadron engineering assistant team plots the location of all aircraft debris before it is moved to a hangar for investigation.
The 145th Civil Engineering Squadron Emergency Management team managed command and control, the Emergency Operations Center and the Crisis Action Team.
“This is basically command and control on wheels,” said Master Sgt. Mark Fow, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist, 145th Civil Engineering Squadron Emergency Management. “We’re out here providing a common operational picture so that the command and control on base can see exactly what’s going on out here.”
The exercise provided an opportunity for each agency to maintain readiness and for the wing to see how the response would be in a real-world situation.
“I think it’s a great exercise. Obviously, we’re the Air Force, so our No. 1 priority is airplanes,” said Lazaroski. “We need to train for if something catastrophic happens with an airplane and know the steps needed to figure out what was wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“A lot of times, we train and exercise in a bubble, so getting all the disciplines together and training makes us all the more prepared if ever we do have to respond to a real-world event,” said Fow.