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McConnell practices for aircraft accidents

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MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. (USTCNS) --- As the sun began to rise Dec. 8, the first call of trouble came in - Exercise, Exercise, Exercise: a C-130 Hercules from Little Rock AFB, Ark., declared an in-flight emergency with an engine problem.

Shortly after the aircraft reported the IFE, air traffic controllers reported smoke on the south end of the runway near the fire training area. Emergency crews from the base fire department, security forces and clinic responded to the scene.

The aircraft, with four people on-board, had crashed. Fire crews quickly suppressed the flames and began to look for survivors.

Once the fire was extinguished, the task of determine who and what was on-board began. The Crisis Action Team and the Disaster Control Group were activated.

While an aircraft didn't actually crash at McConnell, the base did practice responding to this scenario during the Major Accident Response Exercise.

"This exercise was designed to test McConnell's responsiveness to a possible Threatcon activity," said Master Sgt. Joe Riddle, 22nd Air Refueling Wing NCOIC of Wing Readiness. "This is the first MARE exercise that has been driven by a Threatcon-type scenario."

"Col. Roggero asked me to build a no-notice MARE exercise that would test the base's thought process and ability to deal with a major accident that might have been caused by something out of the ordinary," said Riddle.

"We want to train in a realistic environment because this type of thing could happen anytime, anywhere," he added. "I hope something like this never happens, but I think the base preformed very well last week." (FROM MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE PUBLIC AFFAIRS).

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