This year’s exercise consisted of two separate mock scenarios focusing on police and fire response. The first scenario centered around a flight that was ‘seized’ by a hostage taker. Police responded with appropriate tactics to practice techniques and procedures.

Volunteers were outfitted with theater makeup to represent a variety of injuries in an attempt to test medical care triage, treatment, and transport practices and procedures.

Port Police and Fire Departments lead each scenario response which included dozens of King County area mutual aid police and fire agencies. An estimated 50-75 pieces of equipment from fire engines to aid cars and up to 175 fire fighters were scheduled to participate, as well as police officers and SWAT teams. Additional first responders from the Port included Sea-Tac Airport Security, Airport Operations, Public Information and the Port Environmental team.

Following the exercise, a comprehensive report will be prepared post-exercise to identify any gaps in emergency planning and prioritize follow-up corrective actions.

Photographer Francis Zera was also on hand, and he created the following Sound Slideshow (make sure your speakers are turned on):

Click to Play Francis Zera’s Sound Slideshow

The Port of Seattle wants to make sure everyone knows that if you see smoke, or elements of what might look like an airplane accident, or hear bad groans of mock pain from hired actors emanating from Sea-Tac Airport on Friday, July 15th, don’t worry – it’s only a Tri-ennial Emergency Exercise being conducted.

The exercise will run from 6 a.m. – Noon on Runway 16R/34L on Friday, and will involve a faked full-scale emergency exercise simulating an aircraft incident as a way to test airfield disaster preparedness and response as required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) every three years.

The exercise will NOT affect or delay regular air travel at Sea-Tac Airport. The westernmost runway (16R/34L) will be closed for the exercise; however, both of the other two runways will be open as normal.

This year’s exercise will consist of two separate mock scenarios focusing on police and fire response. The first scenario will center around a flight that is seized by a hostage taker. Police will respond with appropriate tactics to practice techniques and procedures.

Over 100 volunteers will pose as ‘victims’ next to a mock-up aircraft in the fire and rescue scenario. Volunteers will be outfitted with theater makeup to represent a variety of injuries that will test medical care triage, treatment, and transport practices and procedures.

Port Police and Fire Departments will lead each scenario response which will include dozens of King County area mutual aid police and fire agencies. An estimated 50 -75 pieces of equipment from fire engines to aid cars and up to 175 fire fighters are scheduled to participate, as well as police officers and SWAT teams. Additional first responders from the Port will include Sea-Tac Airport Security, Airport Operations, Public Information and the Port Environmental team.

Following the exercise, a comprehensive report will be prepared post-exercise to identify any gaps in emergency planning and prioritize follow-up corrective actions.

Again, please note that this event is only a drill!

On Wednesday (Sept. 1st), we received an update from Miller/Walker Creek Basin Steward Dennis Clark that new tests show an increase in the toxic algae found last week in Lake Burien (read our previous report here).

According to Clark, a lake resident took another water sample from Lake Burien on Monday, Aug. 30th, and had it analyzed by King County. Preliminary analysis shows an increase in the algae toxin (microcystin) from 5.72 to 9.4 micrograms per liter – a 64.3% increase.

Clark adds:

This new concentration is above the state’s proposed recreational guideline “caution level” of 6 micrograms per liter and should be taken seriously.

Small children and dogs should be kept out of the water to avoid ingestion of the algae.

King County staff encourage people to continue to follow the other recommendations listed here (PDF file).

Owing to the upward trend in the toxin concentration from Aug. 16 to Aug. 30, King County will begin analyzing samples on a weekly basis while recreation use of the lake remains high.

All updates on the toxin concentrations in Lake Burien will be posted at the Miller/Walker Creek basin webpage here (we’ll also post them as we get them).

So, if you’re an iPhone/Touch user, could you please load www.b-townblog.com and see how it looks?

In a perfect world, it will load a customized page that contains just headlines and stories, easily readable on the device, but on ours it only works sporadically.

Please email editor@b-townblog.com with your feedback, or post a Comment below.

Thanks!

That speck in the sky was one of three local news choppers hovering over B-Town to get a shot of the third runway test Sept. 25th.

You may recall that on Thurs., Sept. 25th, a buncha mysterious helicopters were seen hovering over Burien like hungry hornets at a carnivore’s convention.

People freaked and started calling/emailing us, wondering why and how our world was about to end.

The reality of course was that it was just local News Choppers wasting expensive fuel covering the test-landing of the expensive third runway at SeaTac Airport.

Well, it’s going to happen again Wed. morning Oct. 8th (pending the weather), anytime between around 9am and, um…whenever they darn well feel like it, as the Port of Seattle will be conducting another test-landing, this time with the first-ever wide-body commercial aircraft.

So consider yourself warned!

From their press release:

First Commercial Wide-Body Test Landing on Sea-Tac’s Third Runway Set for Wednesday, October 8th

The Port of Seattle will welcome the first-ever wide-body commercial aircraft to land on Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s new third runway as part of the final scheduled test landing for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification.

A Northwest Airlines A330 will perform several touch and go landings as part of the certification process for the new runway scheduled to open November 20th.

An Alaska Airlines 737-800 was the first commercial-type aircraft to land on the third runway September 25th. That test certified narrow-body aircraft.

FAA administrators will monitor the landing to test and verify the runway’s instrument landing systems (or ILS). The aircraft will approach under auto-land conditions to test the ILS in what would be the worst visual landing conditions an aircraft would encounter.

NOTE: This event will be weather dependent. The exact time of the landings is also fluid and will be dependent on coordination with Air Traffic Control.

That little speck up in the clouds is one of three local news helicopters hovering over Burien to get a shot of the 'touch and go' third runway tests at SeaTac airport.

No need to panic just ‘cuz there are helicopters hovering over Burien – no, it’s not the end of the world, it’s simply a major waste of precious fossil fuels being used up to fuel the local news cycle.

They’re all jockeying to get the best shot of the “touch and go” airplane tests at SeaTac Airport’s new third runway.

According to our friends at the KOMO Newsdesk, the copters must hover over B-Town for safety purposes, and since there are three of ‘em (at least that’s how many we counted) they have to spread out.

So stop worrying and get back to work, knowing that all is well (ahem, yeah right…) in your world.

So if you see smoke, or “victims” laying on the tarmac in various states of injury makeup, now you’ll know what’s going on.

The exercise will test airfield disaster preparedness and response as required by the FAA every three years.

It’d be cool if something like this happened, but we kinda doubt it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to the Port:

With the availability of the soon-to-be-activated third runway, this will be the first full-scale exercise to occur on a Sea-Tac runway in at least 25 years. The exercise will NOT affect or delay any air travel. Both of Sea-Tac’s current runways will be open as normal and the exercise will NOT affect any customer activity within the terminal.

Over 100 volunteers will participate as ‘victims’ next to a mock-up aircraft fuselage placed in the middle of the third runway along with wrecked cars representing various debris designed to drill extrication procedures. Volunteers will arrive at approximately 6:30 a.m. for make-up to represent a variety of injuries that will test medical care triage practices.

Dozens of the King County area mutual aid police and fire agencies will participate in the exercise with an estimated 50 -75 pieces of equipment from fire engines to aid cars and up to 175 fire fighters. Additional police officers from the area are also expected to participate alongside first responders from the Port of Seattle Fire and Police Departments, Sea-Tac Airport Security, Airport Operations, Public Information and the Port Environmental team.

In addition, other key exercise participants will include airport and airline representatives, the FAA, the Red Cross, King County Emergency Management Division, and the King County Medical Examiner.

A comprehensive report will be prepared post-exercise to identify any gaps in emergency plans and then prioritize follow-up corrective actions.

SOURCE:

• Port of Seattle