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RIVERDALE, Utah (AP) -- With an air show coming up at Hill Air Force Base, emergency response teams from the base and local agencies held an exercise to see how well they would deal with a midair collision of two fighter jets and nearly 40 wounded people.
About 45 minutes into the exercise, the simulation was halted when a visiting F-22 Raptor declared a possible emergency. The base emergency personnel responded to the flight line until the Raptor landed safely.
"We did have to stop the exercise momentarily due to an aircraft in-flight emergency," said Col. Scott Chambers, 75th Air Base Wing commander. "But it was resolved within minutes and thankfully without incident."
A base official said the aircraft experienced hot brakes.
In the event a pilot suspects hot brakes, it is standard procedure to declare an emergency with the tower. The pilot then lands and taxis to the end of the runway to the designated hot-brake area. The base fire department would be dispatched to the hot-brake area for support.
About 30 minutes after the Raptor landed safely, the simulation resumed.
In the mass-casualty exercise, the scenario was that two F-16s collided over an air show crowd. One Falcon supposedly went down on base, and the other crashed in Riverdale.
In the simulation, there was smoke rising from the fuselage of a jet and volunteers lying on the ground, covered in fake blood.
Riverdale police and fire officials commanded the off-base scene with help from ambulances from surrounding cities. Base personnel evaluated the response.
"We've been working on this scenario for six months," said Roy Fire Capt. Lee Watts. "This is part of our preparation for any real-world scenarios."
"Overall, this was our most ambitious undertaking, combining on-base and off-base crisis scenarios simultaneously," Chambers said. "It truly tested our ability to respond appropriately in such a situation."
He said, "There was a tremendous amount of coordination between the base and Davis and Weber county officials, which enabled us to pull this off. Our early assessment indicates it was a huge success, thanks to their superb support."
Officials said they do not anticipate an emergency at the June 10-11 air show, but were using the event as a way to focus training.
At a 1981 air show, a T-38 Thunderbird flamed out and crashed in a Layton field.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
