Ready to Respond

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont Air National Guard firefighters joined airport personnel, community partner agencies, and hundreds of volunteers for the triennial Federal Aviation Administration aircraft rescue firefighting exercise at the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, Sept. 12, 2026.

This was a full-scale aircraft emergency exercise designed to test emergency responder’s abilities to respond to a mass casualty aviation event. The exercise evaluates interagency coordination, emergency procedures, and the ability of the responders themselves to save lives.

“The whole point of this exercise is to assess everyone’s ability to respond to an aircraft incident,” said Tim Francis, a civilian fire captain for the VTANG. “In this year’s scenario we had an Embraer 170 experiencing a right-side engine fire that occurred on takeoff, which ultimately resulted in a runway excursion causing a post-crash fire with multiple victims.”

VTANG firefighters responded to the simulated emergency, providing initial aircraft fire suppression and rescue capabilities while integrating with other county fire departments. They then responded from standby positions to protect the available evacuation routes, enter the aircraft, and then begin assessing and removing the casualties for further care.

The response is organized through a shared incident command structure. This allows VTANG firefighters and other local fire and emergency response agencies to quickly integrate their personnel and resources to get the mission complete as timely as they can.

“It solidifies the relationships we have with other agencies,” Francis said. “Being able to include them and work face to face with them is absolutely integral. Together, we validated a mutual aid plan which had emergency responders coming from several counties working together. That plan was tested. It worked.”

Responding to an aircraft emergency of this scale can quickly exceed the personnel and resources available within a single department. Nearly a dozen community partners participated in this exercise, which allowed the VTANG to test and integrate with other agencies that could very well be called upon during a real world emergency.

Successfully completing the scenario was only one measure of the exercise. Putting the plans into reality also exposes responders to the resource challenges that can be difficult to replicate in a classroom.

“It’s easy to sit back and tabletop things in a classroom setting,” said Dustin Lasher, an assistant fire chief of operations participating in the exercise. “But at the end of the day you don’t know what you need or are lacking until you are actually faced with those challenges yourself.”

For the VTANG firefighters, physically executing the response allows them to identify communication limitations, equipment considerations, and areas where the current established procedures could better be adjusted to aid in real world operations. These observations provide the participating agencies with information they need to refine their training, policies, and equipment requirements.

“If our policies aren’t aligning to how we’re executing the mission, it’s a good mark for me to go back and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t matching real world operations, we need to adjust this policy,’” Francis stated.

Being able to train under realistic conditions gave the VTANG firefighters and their community partners the opportunity to validate not only what worked, but also where they may need to adapt. Whether responding with a full team or adapting to limited resources and members, the exercise reinforced the importance of trained Airmen, established partnerships, and the ability to adjust when conditions differ from the plan.

“Timelines change, but at the end of the day, the mission is still getting done,” Francis said. “We’re ready to respond.”

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.