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On the evening of August 11, 2010, the Cynthiana E-911 Dispatch Center received a call at 19:31 from the Cynthiana-Harrison County Airport of a downed aircraft. According to the contact person at the airport, the pilot of a 2003 Cirrus SR22, #N160EU, left the airfield radar approximately one mile northwest of the field after having made radio contact regarding the need of an emergency landing. The pilot reported that while at an altitude of 8,000 feet the “engine started to sputter and oil leaked” from the engine compartment onto the windshield (HCEMA, 2010). The pilot managed to blindly find and make a landing on the runway, finally coming to rest off the end of the runway in a neighboring crop of soybeans.
Cynthiana Police Department (CPD) unit 33 arrived on scene at 19:36. Shortly after 33′s arrival, Cynthiana Fire Department (CFD) and Brown’s Ambulance Service were dispatched to the scene. Deputies from the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office (SO) also announced that they were en route. At 19:44 Brown’s EC-5 arrived on scene, and Harrison County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) unit 806 advised he was en route. Shortly thereafter CFD Engine 2 and Unit 4 arrived on scene with 274 declaring Officer in Charge (OIC) for CFD. SO units 370 and 383 arrived at 19:46. CFD, after investigating the scene, left at 20:00. EC-5 left the scene as well, after making sure the pilot was fine at 20:03, three minute before 806′s arrival. The final units to leave the scene were 370 and 383 at 20:19, 379 and 33 at 20:35 and 806 at 20:39. (HCEMA, 2010)
During the event, members from many of Cynthiana and Harrison County’s emergency services were activated. Initially, CPD unit 33 was dispatched to investigate the call; an EC unit, CFD, SO and EMA units were later dispatched for additional support and management of the incident. Within their separate agencies elements of ICS were present. Overall, a variation of ICS was also present. As with most traditional interpretations of ICS the first to the scene was placed as the incident command until a more qualified representative arrived. In this incident, 33 was the first to arrive, giving an idea of direction to other agencies upon arrival. Overall, 33 remained in an IC capacity until the arrival of 806, at which time 33 resumed his primary role of law enforcement. During 33′s role as IC, he coordinated with dispatch the relay of information to 806, who then relayed the necessary and available information to the Commonwealth Emergency Operations Center’s (CEOC) duty officer. As this was a fairly large incident involving multiple agencies involving an aircraft, the CEOC had to be made aware in order for the FAA and NTSB to be notified. Upon notification of the incident, the CEOC contacted the Area EM Manager – EM-47—as well as the FAA, Kentucky State Police, and Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (HCEMA, 2010).
Where the incident did not involve any larger damage to life or property, the response to the incident was allowed to de-escalate. Agencies involved were also allowed to follow their normal lower-scaled operations and leave the scene when their services were no longer needed. The remainder of the operations were closed by the local EMA and the scene was left for an FAA representative to investigate the following day (HCEMA, 2010).
Communications and general Operations for the event were initially handled by the E-911 Dispatch Center and unit 33. Overall, these communications and handling of information went well, with the exception of dispatch taking time to notify unit 806. Unit 806 should have been notified of the incident almost immediately after the call was received, as the situation required notification of agencies outside of the area and there was the potential of a “hazmat” and ecological situation with the release of any fluids from the craft. The delay in notifying 806 may have been related to an influx of calls in the dispatch center—this is merely speculation based upon other inconsistencies in the E-911 Computer Aided Dispatch Incident Report. Fortunately, 806 is also a member of the city and county fire departments and was already aware and en route prior to being notified. While en route, 806 handled the remainder of the communications with outside agencies by notifying the CEOC.
Planning for the incident was initially handle by 33 and then handed to 806 upon his arrival. During the event, planning elements such as gathering information was handled by 33, with more being gathered and reported back from units 274, 370, 383 and EC-5.
Logistics were initially handled by the dispatch center, through the activation of the various local agencies per standard operating procedures. Once the respective agencies were notified, unit 806 planned and prepared for the possibility of further needs by contacting the CEOC. Fortunately, there weren’t any other needs to be met in this incident.
In general, this incident was handled well. All agencies were notified and responded in a relatively timely manner. Coordination of efforts went fairly smoothly; however, as seems to be the case, the local agencies were not able to fully respond and fill “all” of the functions of the ICS model as a larger group where the incident was still relatively small.
It is my opinion that the incident received better handling than the search and rescue (SAR) incident presented from the same community which utilized some of the same agencies. A possible reason for the better handling of the incident could be related to the differences in the individual responding units. In this situation, as opposed to the former units that responded to the scene were more “seasoned” and had also gone through more training than those who had responded to the SAR event. One other possible reason for the better handling of the incident could also be related to the larger number of units responding—organization and assignment of duties seems to come easier when there are more people available to handle the tasks.
References
Harrison County Emergency Management Agency. (2010, August 11). 2010 Situation Report File. Incident # 2010-00014115. Cynthiana, KY
Mirrored from Being Jeremiah Palmer[1].
1: http://kg4vma.duckdns.org/2011/06/aviation-incident/
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