Disaster Scenario : Mock Plane Collision at Oxnard Airport Tests Emergency System

William Stewart has had little reason to replay Oxnard’s air disasters in his mind.

But as firetrucks Wednesday doused the smoldering wreckage of a twin-engine plane in a disaster drill for emergency workers, memories of fiery crashes in the skies above Oxnard haunted the Port Hueneme resident.

During his hitch in the Navy, while stationed in a tent city across from Oxnard Airport during World War II, Stewart said he witnessed a midair collision between two torpedo bombers that left six people dead.

Years later, he said, a pilot and passenger were badly hurt when their small plane slammed into a fence at the edge of the Oxnard airfield.

“There have been real air tragedies here before,” said Stewart, a member of the Ventura County grand jury invited to view the mock air disaster staged to prepare emergency crews for a real crisis at the Oxnard Airport. “By practicing like this, they have a little exposure to what can really happen.”

Disaster-preparedness drills are required every three years at airports that accept commercial flights. Oxnard is the only commercial airport in Ventura County.

More than 50 emergency workers and airport personnel participated in the exercise, mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Although there have been no major accidents at the airport in recent decades, officials said the practice sessions help prepare rescue workers for the worst.

“It’s to make sure that everybody is aware of the procedures and able to participate in an actual incident,” said Marshall MacKinen, administrator for the Oxnard and Camarillo airports. “It’s a safe airport, and we want to keep it that way.”

On Wednesday, the airfield took on the appearance of anything but safe.

The wreckage of a red-and-white Jetstream 3200 lay crumpled on the taxiway, spewing smoke and spitting fire. A few feet away, four bodies, ostensibly bloodied and broken, lay motionless in the shadow of a twin-engine Beechcraft.

The disaster scenario had the Jetstream losing power and veering off course as it swooped in for a landing. It clipped the Beechcraft as it taxied on the runway, tearing holes in its cabin and a wing, causing a fuel spill. The Jetstream then crashed onto the airstrip and burst into flames, immediately killing the pilot and a passenger.

The 11 passengers and two crew members aboard the Beechcraft were all badly injured.

Almost immediately, firetrucks arrived on the scene, passing up the fiery wreckage to spray water on the fuel spill. The victims underneath the plane, already moaning to simulate the pain of their mock injuries, moaned even louder when they were doused with cold water.

“I didn’t know they were going to do that,” said Mark Gassaway, playing the part of a passenger with a broken leg. His wife, Vicky, and two children--Catherine, 12, and Nick, 11--also played victims.

Ambulances, more firetrucks and a Sheriff’s Department helicopter arrived minutes later to deliver the injured to area hospitals.

Miraculously healed a couple of hours later, joining his fellow blood-stained victims for lunch, Gassaway said he thought the practice session accomplished its goal.

“It’s a good idea,” Gassaway, a local pilot, said. “It’s only when you don’t practice that you get bit.”