28.9.10

American Eagle: Deep in the Heart of Texas

One of our 7 airline partners American Eagle, a division of American Airlines, along with its parent company, is headquartered in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Our roving photog decided to embark on a journey to this amazing metroplex and chronicle the trip on Twitter, Facebook and eventually in a video on the HIA Observation Deck. The point of the social media journey was to take you, the follower, fan, subscriber; community member along too!

The journey began with a 7:30 am departure from MDT to Chicago - O'Hare (ORD) on American Eagle, followed by a 9:55 am connection from ORD to Dallas/Fort Worth airport (DFW) on American Airlines. The air travel experience from start to finish was a breeze thanks to capable and friendly airline staff and easy experiences at ORD and DFW. The air travel came to a close with an 11:50 (local time) arrival at DFW.

Upon arrival in DFW, our photog was off to visit the American Airlines Training & Conference Center (AATCC) and the nearby C.R. Smith Museum. These two facilities are an aviation geek and prop-head's dream come true. The AATCC shares it's campus with the Flight Academy, home to different training programs, including but not limited to pilot, first officer, and flight attendant school. The campus is located at what was formerly the Stewardess College in the 1950s.
The C.R. Smith Museum is a chockful of American Airlines goodness: memorabilia, audio/visual learning, aircraft parts, simulators and of course a retired member of the AA fleet, the Flagship Knoxville, a DC3 that began her maiden voyage in 1940. We would need an additional blog post to share entire museum experience; very interactive, and fun!

Have we interested you yet in hopping on a plane to visit DFW via ORD on American? Have you already visited these facilities? What did you enjoy the most about your visit to DFW?

21.9.10

Emergency Exercise by the Numbers

The post event wrap-up of our full-scale emergency exercise, we're pleased to say, is a positive one! On Saturday evening, 9/18 at 8 pm we we conducted our exercise as required by the Federal Aviation Administration. The exercise was executed by 108 emergency personnel from the community, 75 volunteer victims, and 40 airport and airline personnel.

The 108 emergency personnel included fire, police and EMS from York, Dauphin and Lancaster counties. These personnel joined forces with airport fire and police personnel to rescue 75 volunteer victims, 13 adult dummies and 2 infant dummies in a simulated plane crash on the east end of MDT's runway. The victims and dummies were assigned varying degrees of injury and had to be treated accordingly by the first responders.

The participating fire, police and EMS included 33 apparatus from Lower Swatara Township, Middletown, High Spire, the PA 193rd Air National Guard, Londonderry, Steelton, Swatara Township, Hershey, Union Deposit, Bainbridge, Fairview Township, DESSP, Life Lion, Hershey, Northwest, Manheim Township, and Community Life team. Other participating agencies were Emergency Health Service Foundation, American Red Cross, Dauphin County coroner, Dauphin County Communications and the PA 193rd Air National Guard Airfield Management Security Forces.

As you can see a LOT of time, effort and personnel went into exercise. In a matter of 90 minutes these combined community efforts provided scene safety, assessment, victim treatment, transport, fire fighting, and many other activities in an effort to build team skills in the event that an actual emergency incident would take place on the airport campus. These concerted efforts made this exercise a success!

MDT would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of the participating agencies, personnel and volunteers that helped make this exercise happen. We would also like to thank you, the community for staying up-to-date on the exercise as well!

You can read through our archive of live tweets during the exercise and also view photos of the exercise.

20.9.10

Post Exercise Wrap-Up

Please accept our apologies for the wrap-up post delay, as we're still collecting a few informational pieces to put together a robust piece together for you on the full-scale emergency exercise from 9/18/10!

We'll go live with our final blog wrap-up tomorrow! Stay tuned!

18.9.10

An Intro to HIA's Full-Scale, Emergency Excercise

This evening (9/18/2010) beginning at 8 pm, Harrisburg International Airport, along with local emergency responders, will be conducting an FAA required full-scale, emergency exercise. We expect that the exercise, held on the airport campus, to be wrapped up by 12 midnight. Local residents, guests and passengers at HIA will see lights and hear sirens during this time, as HIA and airline employees, along with the local responders simulate and respond to a staged emergency aircraft incident. Anyone seeing or hearing any part of the exercise should not be alarmed, this is ONLY an exercise!

Emergency Exercise FAQ

So what's the point of an airport conducting an emergency exercise?
The goal of the exercise is to enable airport and community fire, security, medical,and other resources to join in an effective, coordinated response to airport emergencies.

How often do you have to hold an emergency exercise?
The FAA requires the exercises to be conducted every 3 years.

What do you do at the emergency exercise?
In the months prior to the emergency exercise taking place a oversight team at the airport decides what type of emergency incident will be simulated/practiced at the exercise. The type of emergency being practiced is then planned for, and then simulated on the day of the exercise. Types of incidents that are practiced varies from year to year and from airport to airport.

Who participates in the emergency exercise?
Fire, police, dispatch, EMT, paramedic, airport personnel, airline personnel participate in the exercise, along with a number of their friends/family as volunteers.

What do the friends/family volunteers do at the exercise?
These volunteers will pretend to be "victims" of the type of emergency incident being practiced at the exercise. They are often dressed with make-up and paint called "moulage" to simulate different types of injuries that may/might be received in a real event.

How do you determine if the participating parties have learned what they are supposed to?
At the close of the exercise, the parties involved meet for a debriefing meeting wherein a group of people that had been selected to observe the exercise share their observations. All aspects of the exercise are discussed and performance rated. The goal of the exercise debriefing is to make sure all parties involved know what went well and what aspects needed improvement.

What other questions do you have? Post them as a comment and we'll be happy to answer them! The FAA provides a full airport exercise guide, feel free to take a look.

We will be covering the exercise with live social media coverage as it unfolds, so stayed tuned to Facebook and Twitter for live updates!

And tomorrow we will publish a post-exercise wrap up blog post!

10.9.10

Are you a Social Air Traveler?

When you cruising through the terminal looking for your gate, you may notice that many of your fellow air travelers are engrossed in their smart phones, iPads, netbooks, laptops, or any number of other electronic handheld devices. Some of those travelers may even be occupied by multiple smart devices. What are they doing? They're emailing, uploading, downloading, texting, tweeting, posting, writing, compiling, computing, researching, reading, surfing, sharing, shopping, and the list of activities is endless! Did we miss any?

Each day more and more of these activities are becoming socially connected to those around us. We have ever increasing opportunities to share what we're doing with just about everyone that we're connected to through social networking sites. This revolution in how we participate in online activities makes us social at work, play, travel, life, and more. How are you connecting with your Social Graph?

If you are traveling alone, do you connect online via social media to keep in touch with your family and friends? If you're traveling with a colleague on business, do you converse over the web or over a cup of coffee?

How do you prefer to be social when flying?