Mock Air Crash Prepares Crews for Real Thing

It was only an exercise, but the bloody victims, the smoke, the fire and the plane parts strewn about a corner of Oxnard Airport looked enough like a plane accident to frighten the uninitiated.

“That’s the idea, to make it look real,” said Rick Landof, a 27-year-old director at a local film and video studio who helped officials from the airport with the morning exercise by laying out dismembered bodies and other props meant to simulate the carnage of a commuter-plane accident.

The emergency exercise is part of regularly scheduled drills required by the Federal Aviation Administration, said John Dodd, Oxnard Airport manager.

The exercise was meant to test the readiness of local ambulance, fire and police agencies for major disasters, Dodd said.

While wandering through the staged carnage, watching the emergency personnel work, Dodd said the emergency personnel were handling the exercise with flying colors.

“It’s going as planned,” he said.

Shadowing the police officers, firefighters and paramedics were evaluators watching and noting how they responded to the simulated accident.

“We’re looking at everything,” said Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief Hank Lenhart, a clipboard in hand.

Each victim--many of them drama students from local high schools and community colleges--was given specific instructions about their wounds and how to behave, and then dabbed with makeup for some realistic injuries that included compound fractures, bruises and massive lacerations.

“We spent about two weeks making the molds for the compound fractures,” said Mark Sisson, a 39-year-old instructor for a Los Angeles-based movie makeup school.

For 26-year-old college actor J.R. Thomas of Oxnard, it was just another job. Thomas was playing the part of the co-pilot.

“Guess we didn’t know how to fly that plane,” he said, joking before the exercise began.