Rockford airport will hold multi-agency emergency response drill on Friday

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The Chicago Rockford International Airport will be swarming with emergency vehicles on Friday as it conducts a large-scale emergency response drill.

The full-scale exercise will simulate the multi-department response to a passenger aircraft crash. Local police, firefighters, Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting and airport staff will participate along with volunteers who will act as injured patients.

“The Federal Aviation Administration requires us to stage a full-scale exercise every three years,” Airport Emergency Manager Theresa James said in a news release. “The ultimate goal of the exercise is to identify improvements to be made to our emergency response plan should a real disaster ever happen at the airport.”

A team of experts will evaluate the response of all agencies. Exercise objectives include testing communications, fire and police response, emergency medical response, multiple casualty hospital plans, interagency coordination and the incident command system.

“Both strengths and weaknesses of the response will be noted, and an evaluation team will be on hand to monitor and critique the exercise,” James said. “The exercise tests multiagency coordination and response implementing use of the resources from its surrounding communities.”

The simulation is not open to the public.

Commercial and cargo will not be affected by the drill and will continue to operate as normal.

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This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas