MASCOUTAH, Ill. — A Metro East airport has reopened tonight after closing for roughly three hours this afternoon for a simulated crash of an airliner.
It's part of the training required by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Every year more than 150,000 people fly out of MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois, but Tuesday afternoon all air traffic was brought to a stop.
“We need to prove to the FAA that we have the ability to handle an air carrier emergency,” said MidAmerica Airport Director Darren James. “Specifically, an aircraft accident.”
In order to meet the FAA requirements emergency crews practiced responding to what’s known as a hard landing.
“Bird strikes occur a lot,” said James. “That’s the precursor to drive this emergency. Bird strikes take out an engine, and then they have to turn around and make an emergency return.”
Since crashing an airplane on the runway isn’t a real option MidAmerica turned to Scott Air Force Base for help.
“We have an aircraft luckily from the 126th Air Refueling Wing so we have a target to set up around and provide fire suppression,” said James. “We’re also using some items to simulate a fuselage so that we have emergency responders extricating passengers.”
By activating the air carrier emergency plan MidAmerica Airport Director Darren James says he’s looking at more than how they simply fight a fire.
“We have to make sure we have effective communication,” said James. “We want to make sure the right information gets to the right time.”
As airport officials review the training James says he’s hopeful it’s information they never need to use.
“Obviously we never want something like this to happen at the airport, but we need to be ready in case it does,” said James.