Planning And Training For Airplane Crashes

As the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport grows in popularity so does the need for airplane crash safety and training.

Airport Manager Dean Selby said with more traffic, the odds of an accident increases. Selby said the airport is due a disaster drill with recent events.

“We got a pretty extensive emergency and security plan that details how we react to different crashes be it on site or off site,” Selby said. “That kind of dictates how we respond whether it is on the airfield or off the airfield.”

Selby said the biggest skill taught to employees is how to handle a fire. In the event of an accident, employees know which gates to open and who to call. Selby said employees need to be trained, so when an accident does occur, the disaster response is instant.

“We have a book actually right by the front desk that list a whole list of here is who you call, and the order you call them in in the event of an accident,” Selby said. “The problem that you have a lot of times when something like that happens, you got so many things coming at you so fast that that needs to be an automated response. That is when the training comes in.”

The airport was supposed to conduct emergency drills with local emergency crews, but COVID caused issues.

“It has been several years since we have had one,” Selby said. “We were planning one for this spring at some point, but obviously with the COVID situation and everything, we have not done that. We will be getting back in touch. We now have the White County EMA director actually here on site. We were discussing just a couple weeks ago actually that we are going to have to sit down and do another disaster drill.”

Selby said if growth continues at the airport, a on site fire station could come in the future.