If you are traveling to or around Miami International Airport on Wednesday morning, you may see more than 100 people on the tarmac along with a lot of emergency equipment and first responders, but don't worry...this is only a drill.
The Miami-Dade Aviation Department, in conjunction with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the Miami-Dade Police Department and other emergency response agencies, will conduct a full-scale exercise to test and evaluate Miami International Airport’s emergency plan and its ability to respond to a major incident.
"It's mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration," said Suzie Trutie, public relations officer for MIA. "The purpose of it is to test and evaluate an airport's emergency plan and an airport's ability to respond to emergency services for a major incident."
Airports often conduct the drills more than once in the mandated three year window. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport had a pattern of completing the exercise once every eighteen months, but since the last drill in November of 2014, the airport and emergency personnel from around Broward have dealt with the Dynamic Flight 405 engine fire, the FedEx flight 910 crash and the Terminal 2 shooting.
The next scheduled drill at FLL is set for mid-September and advances in technology since the last evaluation at MIA should benefit this test.
"Whether it's equipment, whether it's the way we notify passengers of the public, those are always things that we take into consideration," said Trutie.
In addition to participation by various local fire departments and federal agencies, more than 170 volunteers from American Red Cross, Coral Reef Senior High School, Design and Architecture Senior High and John A. Ferguson Senior High will role-play passengers on an aircraft affected by an emergency both at the airport as well as area hospitals.
Despite the activity, only one gate will be closed off for the drill and air traffic is not supposed to be affected.
(Photo credit: David McNew)