Sheridan County Airport Holds Disaster Training Exercise

Although it wasn’t an actual disaster, Sheridan County Emergency personnel went through a training exercise, should something go wrong with an airplane during its flight or during takeoff and landing.

The Sheridan County Airport held a mock disaster training exercise to evaluate the preparedness and capabilities of the airport, its tenants and local response agencies.

The situation for the exercise was that a plane ended up crashing after geese flew into the engines, but a bus was used instead.

A number of actors played the role of victims with various minor to severe injuries, displayed via make-up and props, and a few played dead.

Captain George Neeson with Sheridan Fire and Rescue says most of the time when you hear about a big airplane crash, it’s usually in a big city, but in reality it can happen anywhere.

He adds he’s been to a few emergency airplane situations, but none were like the big disasters you might see or hear about in the national and world media.

“In my time here, we’ve gone on a number of airplane accidents, most of them have been a lot smaller. Most of them have also been able to land. We’ve only had a few that have actually wrecked, but they were never this big, but this truly could happen with our airport because we have United flying in and out of here with SkyWest.”

To stay in compliance with FAA regulations the airport is required to conduct an emergency disaster exercise once every 3 years.

No animals were used or harmed in the exercise.