Helicopter crash drill tests emergency response

Firefighters, medics and hospital staff are meeting today to deconstruct a drill simulating the crash of Care Flight near Carson Valley Medical Center on Thursday.

The drill involved a mock crash landing of the ambulance helicopter near its Gardnerville base, according to East Fork Deputy Chief Dave Fogerson.

"It went really well," Fogerson said. "We simulated that Care Flight took off to do a patient transfer from Minden and crashed on the pad."

Fogerson said there were about 22 people from Care Flight, Douglas County Sheriff's Office, East Fork plus those people working at the medical center in the emergency room.

Handling an aircraft accident isn't that different from a head-on collision on Highway 395, Fogerson said, with the possible exception of the 4,000-gallon-plus fuel tank at the pad.

Only a few people knew about the drill ahead of time, so that evaluators could see how people worked together.

"Every time we do this we learn something," Fogerson said. "Care Flight was training some new managers on what do with a crash. The overall benefit is that folks who don't normally see each other are introduced and work together. This is all about relationships."

Fogerson said the evaluators will do an after-action report and go through it with the key players.

"We work so often with each other without incidents that it is easy to forget that something could go wrong", said Care Flight Operations Manager Temple Fletcher. "Planning and executing exercises together ensures that all entities are as prepared as possible and that the service to each other and the community is superior."