Police, firefighters, ambulances and helicopters surrounded the Tucson International Airport last night as it held its Federal Aviation Administration recertification drill.

The airport is required to hold disaster drills once every three years to retain its certification. The drills involve agencies from the airport authority, such as its fire and police departments, as well as those from the city and county and the Air National Guard.

"These drills test our preparedness in the event of a disaster, including our response time and procedures during an aircraft incident," said Paula Dunn, airport information director.

The drill simulated the crash of an MD-80, which burst into flames and skid along the runway, hitting a car and building, also causing the building to catch fire. The plane also began leaking fuel, requiring the Hazardous Materials Team to respond.

There were 85 people aboard the plane during the simulated accident, said TIA Fire Chief Joe Ornelas.

Volunteers played the role of victims, all of whom suffered different types of injuries. Medical personnel evaluated each victim, and depending on the severity of their injuries were moved away from the scene, said Barclay Dick, TIA maintenance manager.

An intermediate center was set up at the airport for those who were uninjured and with the least amount of injuries. Those needing immediate medical attention were taken by ambulance and helicopter to seven Tucson area hospitals, Ornelas said.

Dick said some of the volunteers arrived as early as two hours before the drill to get made-up to look like they had really been in a crash. The area around the aircraft was strewn with clothing, blood, various airplane parts and little orange flags with numbers, each of which represented the spot where a certain victim was found.

"We assign each person aboard the plane a number because they might have had their clothes blown off and the body might be hard to identify," Ornelas said. "That way when the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigates the accident, they can see exactly where each person ended up."

Fire officials had to pry the cockpit open to free the pilot, a procedure that took 30 minutes to complete because of the location and the decision on how best to get him out, Dick said.

"It is a slow, tedious process," he said. "When the victims that have been taken to hospitals arrive, the hospital might reassess how well the teams here looked at the injuries to determine who needs care first."

After an hour, the last two victims were removed from the plane and the scene was cleared. Rescue personnel were reassigned to other areas, such as clean-up, after all of the victims were out of the area.

The drill continued inside the terminals. Hospital personnel practiced meeting families of people aboard the plane and calming them down. They also had to deal with people inside the airport who may have seen the drill and mistaken it for an actual accident.

Evaluators looked at all of the different aspects of the drill and will prepare reports for airport officials on how things went, said Judy Alexander, an airport employee who is a member of the crisis response field team.

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