County holds plane crash exercise

SANDPOINT — More than a dozen participants representing Bonner County, the city of Sandpoint agencies and private corporations took part in a tabletop exercise involving a plane crash with fire, multiple critical injuries and loss of life, Bonner County Emergency Management Director Bob Howard announced Thursday.

Among the objectives of the exercise were to examine the capability of 911 and airport personnel to promptly alert and notify the public of imminent disaster or hazardous conditions and to disseminate instructional messages to the public on the basis of authority from, or decisions by, appropriate local officials. It also sought to determine the level of cooperation, communication and coordination between agencies, departments, and organizations of the jurisdiction in responding to potential hazardous material problems, fire and traffic control, and injuries and deaths associated with an airline disaster

Other objectives included determining the capability of law enforcement to maintain law and order, provide traffic direction and flow control, and provide security to the scene of an airline disaster and if hospital and other allied health facilities and personnel can withstand a medical surge.

The exercise was the product of months of planning and was designed by the Training and Education Subcommittee of the Local Emergency Planning Council under the direction of Pam Finley, chief deputy and the planning and preparedness coordinator for Bonner County Emergency Management.

The agencies and corporations that participated in the airport training exercise included Bonner County Airports, Bonner County Coroner, Bonner County 911, Bonner County Emergency Management, Bonner County EMS, Bonner County Sheriff’s Office, Bonner General Health, Granite Aviation, Life Flight Network, Kaniksu Health, Northside Fire District, Sandpoint Police Department and Selkirk Fire Rescue & EMS.

“This is the first time we have conducted an airport tabletop exercise of this scale, with this many participants,” Howard said. “It was a true community effort, with everyone working towards the same goal of making Bonner County a safer place to live and work.”

“I think that today’s exercise was extremely valuable,” Bonner County Commissioner Glen Bailey said. “What we learned here today will help the Airport staff formulate their emergency plans and the first response agencies can better prepare for a large-scale event. I am also very gratified that so many diverse agencies and corporations chose to participate in this important public-private partnership.”