After choppers used in Trump visit land, Hollywood Burbank Airport conducts emergency exercise
As soon as three Osprey tiltrotor military aircraft and two U.S. Marine helicopters used during President Trump’s California trip landed at Hollywood Burbank Airport Wednesday morning, local emergency responders commenced a safety drill.
Dozens of officials from airlines, first-aid nonprofits, the Burbank and Glendale city councils and the Airport Authority gathered at the adjacent B-6 Parcel to observe airport safety personnel perform a triennial full-scale exercise.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires all airports to undergo an emergency exercise every three years to ensure that assigned safety personnel and the mutual aid agencies that support them are prepared to quickly and safely respond to major events.
“This is to give those other agencies an opportunity to get reacquainted with the airfield and to be able to work together with our firefighters and the other agencies,” said Frank Miller, executive director of Hollywood Burbank Airport.
Several fire agencies, including Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Los Angeles, as well as the airport’s own firefighting unit, participated.
In the two years between each major exercise, the participating agencies come together to discuss their plans on how to respond to an airfield incident.
This year’s simulation involved an airplane’s nacelle, the housing that contains an engine, exploding after a fuel leak.
Airport safety personnel took a little over two minutes to respond in their bright lime-colored aircraft rescue and firefighting trucks. Firefighters using a built-in hose atop of the safety trucks quickly doused the nacelle fire while three other trucks circled around to the left side of the plane to assess damages.
Minutes later, fire engines, trucks and ambulances from Burbank, Los Angeles, Glendale and Pasadena responded. Burbank firefighters helped the injured passengers — played by actors in realistic makeup — off the plane and assisted them to the triage site.
“I’m watching how the units respond and how the commanders network at the command post,” said Hollywood Burbank Fire Chief Tom Lenahan.
Lenahan, who recently took the helm of the airport’s fire department after serving over 30 years mainly with the Burbank Fire Department, has been involved in numerous emergency exercises at Hollywood Burbank, but this was his first opportunity to see how an incident plays out from the airport’s perspective rather than the city’s point of view.
One of the BUR fire department’s main jobs in an airfield emergency is to create an entryway for safety personnel from assisting agencies.
Lenahan said his staff is trained to respond to aircraft emergencies, as well as fires or incidents at the airport.
“Although our expertise is [airport rescue and firefighting], we’re still an all-risk agency,” he said. “There’s still structures on the airport that we’re responsible for, and there’s also the terminal. My firefighters have to still be good at [airport rescue and firefighting], but they have to also be good at handling structure fires and providing medical treatment.”
Hollywood Burbank Police Chief Ed Skvarna directed his units to create a perimeter around the site to ensure that no one left or entered the area until the rescue and investigation had ended.
“We’re a security force that sets up a perimeter around the aircraft and holds everything static so that the investigators can come on to an uncontaminated possible crime scene,” Skvarna said.
After about an hour, the drill was completed and deemed a success.
“We’re trying to solve these problems in advance before they happen for real, so when it does happen we can revert back to our training,” Skvarna said.
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
