Multiple first responder trainings have been underway at New York City‘s John F Kennedy International Airport this month.
The airport has posted 12 travel notices warning of live-fire training exercises in October, with the most recent held on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the airport, told the Daily Mail the fire drills are annual required training, and multiple exercises are held because so many personnel need to take them.
‘A live-fire training exercise is being conducted, in which fire and smoke will be produced in a controlled fashion, away from public areas,’ the warning said on social media.
‘There is no cause for alarm, and there will be no impact to flight operations.’
A photo posted on October 14 by a traveler on X showed flames and plumes of smoke rising off the tarmac.
‘This is a Live Fire Training Exercise, producing fire/smoke in a controlled fashion away from public areas,’ the airport responded.
The spokesperson told the Daily Mail that the blazes were controlled burns for the training exercises.
Additionally, the airport conducted a ‘full-scale emergency response exercise’ that simulated a plane crash, with screaming actors pretending to be injured passengers, as required every three years by the Federal Aviation Administration.
‘This exercise will not impact flight operations, but smoke and emergency vehicles may be seen at or around,’ the airport cautioned on Facebook.
John F Kennedy International Airport has posted 12 travel notices warning of live-fire training exercises in October, and travelers have shared pictures of flames and plumes of smoke rising off the tarmac
On Saturday, the airport conducted a ‘full-scale emergency response exercise’ that simulated a plane crash with screaming actors pretending to be injured passengers
The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial airports to hold a full-scale emergency exercise every three years. It is unclear why so many fire drills are being held at JFK.
Saturday’s exercise began at 10am with a message sent out to participants that an aircraft with ‘unknown souls on board’ and ‘unknown fuel on board’ had crashed, according to The New York Times.
Actors wore tags around their necks describing their injuries while real first responders practiced evacuating the Delta Air Lines Airbus A330-900 that was used for the drill.
Participants set up an emergency response center and revealed details about the simulation: the aircraft was an international arrival with 102 people on board.
Cloth dummies were used to simulate the dead; a smoke machine was used; the aircraft did not deploy its escape slides; and there was no debris on the field, unlike a real crash situation, according to the Times.
‘In a real accident, this whole area would be covered in foam,’ Sarah McKeon, the director of aviation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees JFK, told the newspaper.
The drill, which lasted about two hours, involved over 100 emergency responders from city, state and federal agencies.
It was the first full-scale drill at a major New York City-area airport since a fatal LaGuardia crash in March.
Emergency crews have been conducting large-scale disaster-response drills at the busy New York City airport
Saturday’s simulation was the first full-scale drill at a major New York City-area airport since the fatal La Guardia crash in March when an Air Canada plane struck a fire truck
An Air Canada flight with 72 passengers and four crew on board collided with a fire truck while landing at LaGuardia on March 22, killing the two pilots.
The aircraft struck the rescue vehicle, which was responding to a separate incident.
The FAA found that two air-traffic controllers left work early before the fatal crash, sources familiar with the investigation told The Wall Street Journal.
The remaining staff at the LGA tower had no backup to handle high workloads, the sources said.
The Daily Mail contacted the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the FAA for comment.
