FORT BARFOOT, Va. –
As a chill wind whipped across the Blackstone Army Airfield Dec. 12, 2024, the Flight Operations Center buzzed with anticipation. Radios and phones crackled to life as an expected call came through, from a Virginia National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The call was prefaced by “Exercise! Exercise! Exercise!,” then, the crew said they were coming in for a hard landing, that one of their engines was out and, with personnel on board, they’d need emergency services. This call, and the events it pushed into motion, was part of the Virginia National Guard’s quarterly exercise to test the organization’s aviation pre-and-post-accident plan.
“The point is to save lives,” said Michel Lacy, the airfield operations officer at the Blackstone Army Airfield. “The most important thing is to save lives, and this helps us be more proficient. In case something like this really happens, this ensures everyone knows their duties, roles and responsibilities, and that way, it helps reduce the response time for a real emergency.”
Testing and confirmation of the organization’s pre-and-post-accident plan is a quarterly requirement, and this iteration was unique in several ways. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eric Dees, special project officer and a pilot assigned the Virginia Army National Guard’s Sandston-based 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, helped oversee the exercise. Dees explained that basing the critical event at Blackstone Army Airfield instead of at the Virginia Army National Guard’s Army Aviation Support Facility, where his team is based, added a layer of complexity to the event.
“It’s away from us, and now we have less control, and we don’t get the visibility to see everything that’s going on,” Dees said. “This one stresses us a little bit harder and it’s a little harder to execute because it’s so far away and 100 percent out of our touch.”
Adding to the logistical challenge of operating far from their home base, this was the first iteration that included passengers onboard the aircraft. They were all “Rescue Randy”-style training mannequins, and added complexity for both the flight crews, as well as the first responders. With five mannequins in the rear of the aircraft, each weighing more than 200 pounds, flight crews were forced to factor that weight into their calculations. Plus, the number of casualties - five - meant the event could be designated a mass casualty, or MASCAL, event, according to Lacy.
“This is probably the first time we did this at this large scale,” Lacy said. “We’ve been trying to go further and further with it, and get as close as we can to a real-world mission without it actually being a real-world emergency.”
As the helicopter called in their “emergency,” flight operations staff leaped into action, both in Blackstone and in Sandston. The full scenario specified that the aircraft - a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter - completed a hard landing due to an engine malfunction that resulted in injuries to all five passengers in the rear of the aircraft, as well as at least one crew member, and created a fuel spill of approximately 100 gallons of fuel.
Once that call was made from the aircraft, a series of additional calls were made, all to test the response time of each invested party, and to ensure the correct contact information is available.
“It’s a call system, basically,” Dees explained. “This makes sure it actually makes sense, makes sure the people we’re calling can actually execute the mission that we need and ultimately, this is all for safety, to make sure that in the case of an emergency, we’re not behind the curve.”
As the helicopter’s blades slowed to a halt, the unmistakable screech of sirens reached the BAAF. Response teams from Fort Barfoot arrived, as well as Blackstone and Nottoway County, and quickly moved to assist the “injured” passengers and crew members.
In the event of a real-world incident, additional support would come from the Virginia State Police, MedFlight, and, depending on the location of the incident, other local and state entities. In the event of an incident on Fort Barfoot or at the BAAF, Range Control representatives would assist in securing the site, and additional Virginia National Guard personnel would assist in recovery efforts and cleaning up the site.
“This was a very successful tryout,” Dees said. He explained that they learned a lot from the experience, including how better to communicate with first responders, especially when it comes to the language they use when determining the level of care required for the injured. “We learned a lot from this, this was really good.”
As the team moves toward their next quarterly exercise, they intend to continue adding layers of complexity to the process, all to ensure that if and when the real call comes, everyone is prepared to save lives.