Not a ‘Victim’ Was Lost : Rescue Agencies Leap Into Action in Simulated Crash of Jumbo Jet Into Ocean

Sheryl Luera, a healthy, 29-year-old lifeguard, was described as a decrepit man with a dislocated knee.

A small cabin cruiser bore a sign proclaiming it a jumbo jetliner.

And the news media were squired to the event on a palatial, 85-foot yacht while being treated to a breakfast that featured raspberries, slivered melon and fresh croissants.

If it all sounds a bit unreal, it was.

Local rescue agencies were participating in a simulated airliner crash in the waters off Pacific Palisades on Wednesday morning, and by all accounts, everyone did a good job.

The whole thing began officially at 8:30 a.m., when a rehearsed call went in to the Los Angeles International Airport tower reporting that a “Blue Airlines” Boeing 747 had just crashed into Santa Monica Bay with 287 people aboard.

On cue, 94 county lifeguards in wet suits jumped out of a boat about a mile from shore and began thrashing about in the water amid “crash debris” scattered there a few minutes earlier.

Several of the “victims” climbed into two inflatable life rafts that supposedly had been launched from the sinking airliner. Some of those still in the water shouted and waved their arms to summon help while others floated, silent and still, “disabled” by their “injuries.”

Within a few minutes, the first two rescue boats showed up--a lifeguard craft dispatched from Zuma Beach and a Sheriff’s Department cruiser from Marina del Rey. Both boats tossed out inflatable rafts and began picking up “survivors.”

More rescue boats arrived and the air soon reverberated with the sounds of arriving helicopters from the Coast Guard, the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles city and county fire departments.

As the boats began hauling people off to a “triage center” set up at the public boat loading ramp in Marina del Rey, someone broadcast a warning that the debris included packages with hazardous contents--radioactive materials, biologically active organisms and high explosives.

Divers leaped from a county Fire Department helicopter to deal with the debris and search for missing “victims.”

As the “victims” arrived at the triage center, they were screened according to the severity of their “injuries.”

Those tagged as most critically injured were listed as having been treated on the spot or helicoptered to nearby hospitals. Those who supposedly had less serious injuries were said to have awaited transport by ambulance.

By noon, the exercise was over, and everyone began heading home.

Official evaluations will not be in for several days. But lifeguard Walt Hertz seemed to sum it all up for everybody:

“They got there fast,” he said. “It all went pretty well.”