Local, state and federal agencies practice for air disaster

RED RIVER - Tens of people are dead and many more injured after a plane crashes onto the ice on the bay of Green Bay - sort of.

A first-of-its-kind drill for Northeast Wisconsin, emergency crews trained for the unthinkable – a plan crash in Green Bay’s icy waters.

Shortly after 8 a.m., the unthinkable happened.

"51 people on board, engine trouble," said a Brown County Fire dispatcher.

The dispatcher says an airplane, which just took off from Austin Straubel International Airport is having engine trouble.

“(The) aircraft has crashed into the ice at Red River Park," said the dispatcher.

Not long after the first emergency calls, responders are on the scene of the crash in the Town of Red River in Kewaunee County.

Brussels-Union-Gardner and Luxemburg Fire Departments are the first units on scene; dive teams are getting ready, in the cold single digit temperatures.

"Let's zip up, get everybody secure," said one firefighter helping another zip up his dry-suit.

However, there's no plane and no real victims. This is just a drill.

• Photos: Agencies practice for air disaster

Every three years, Brown County Emergency Management and Austin Straubel International Airport are required to stage an air disaster drill. Usually it is held on airport grounds.

However, this time it's off airport grounds, on ice, in Green Bay with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Those taking part in the disaster drill did know Wednesday would be for training. What they didn’t know what type of disaster they would be training for.

"It was a little bit of a chaos, but once we got our duty and what we had to do, and went out there and did it, everything went well," said Brad Geisel with Brussels-Union-Gardner Fire Department.

With responders donning dry-suits, climbing on ATVs, sleds and getting aboard flat-bottomed airboats, members of more than two dozen local, state and federal agencies headed out onto the Bay.

All that work just to simulate the rescue of air crash victims from the icy water of the Bay.

Volunteers become victims, suffering from specific symptoms that would be associated with an airplane crash, providing an extra element for responders.

"It's very similar to the real situation," said Geisel in his bright yellow dry-suit, to protect him if he fell through the ice.

"The real learning will occur afterwards as they discuss what their lessons learned, are," said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Michael Parks.

Getting communication right, the first time.

Emergency officials say the more information responders know – the better the disaster response will be.

But all that information must end up back at the Emergency Operations Center.

Nearly all 25 people in the EOC are on the phone, gathering information and planning for the next step in a disaster – like setting up a temporary morgue.

Everyone involved in the drill – both on scene and in the EOC – are working under the National Incident Management System, or NIMS.

NIMS provides a common language to allow any emergency agency to come to a disaster scene and hit the ground running.

"There's so many different plans that are coming into play here and seeing how we call can integrate those plans, so we have a unified, uniform and consistent response to this event," said Brown County Emergency Management director Cullen Peltier.

Though lives aren't on the line, today, emergency officials say improving communication now will save lives in the future.

"We want to make sure that we have an efficient response to any type of event that could occur, in our county," said Peltier.

The full report on the training exercises will be handled by the Coast Guard. It is expected to be finished by this spring.