Overview
- CVG carried out the full-scale disaster drill on Friday, staging a simulated collision between a cargo plane and a passenger plane to exercise response actions.
- More than 700 responders from about 100 agencies worked the scene with roughly 150 volunteers playing injured passengers across two mock crash sites.
- First responders moved about 140 mock patients by ambulance to nine regional hospitals where staff treated them as part of parallel hospital drills.
- The exercise took place on a temporarily closed runway without disrupting regular flights and had hospitals such as St. Elizabeth add staff to protect normal patient care.
- The FAA requires these full-scale simulations about every three years and officials said the physical drill reveals logistical and communication gaps that tabletop exercises do not.