It's an emergency situation that every airport must be prepared for - a plane approaches for landing with malfunctioning landing gear. Hundreds of military and civilian personnel participated in the Oct. 29 emergency scenario at NAS Jacksonville, when a four-engine P-3C Orion aircraft assigned to VP-30 is forced to land with a collapsed nose gear.
NAS Jax Emergency Management Officer Ray Edmond said, "It appears that command and control communications at the station's emergency operations center (EOC) performed as expected. Our ELMR (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."
At the EOC, Edmond worked with NAS Jax 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.
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Boats manned by "boom wranglers" maneuver orange oil containment booms so the spilled hydraulic fluid can be suctioned up by the vacuum truck.
Photo by Clark Pierce
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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 Jax 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.
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LS2 Nitishia Gaines of Naval Hospital Jax applies disaster makeup to the face of VP-30 aircrewman AWV2 Robert Burke prior to the Oct. 29 disaster drill at NAS Jacksonville.
Photo by Clark Pierce
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NAS Jax 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.
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The Hazmat Spill Response Team composed of IAP Hill contract personnel and NAS Jax Environmental Department staff deploy a vacuum vehicle near a storm drain outflow to remove simulated hydraulic fluid from the water's surface.
Photo by Clark Pierce
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The Hazmat Spill Response Team composed of IAP Hill contract personnel and NAS Jax Environmental Department staff deploy a vacuum vehicle near a storm drain outflow to remove simulated hydraulic fluid from the water's surface.
Photo by Clark Pierce
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HM1 Edwin Albino (right) and HM Mariano Indalecio tend to AT3(AW) William Boyer, one of the injured air crewmen of the P-3C Orion that had a emergency landing during the disaster drill.
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LCDR Steve Maier of VP-30 carefully goes over the information tag of wounded Sailor AM3 Brian VanBelkum, to make sure he gets the correct treatment during a disaster drill that included a P3C Orion making a simulated emergency landing.
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NAS Jax Executive Officer Capt. Jeffrey Maclay discusses the events of the disaster drill during a simulated press conference after the event. Standing by to assist with questions were NAS Jax Environmental Officer Kevin Gartland, left, and NAS Jax Fire Chief Don Martin.
Photo by Kaylee LaRocque
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