KFOR conducts quarterly pre-accident plan rehearsal

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo – U.S. Soldiers assigned to Regional Command-East, Kosovo Force, conducted a quarterly pre-accident plan rehearsal at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, on Jan. 29, 2021. Aviation personnel, military police, refuelers and the Camp Bondsteel Fire Department responded to a simulated aircraft emergency involving a UH-60 Blackhawk. The scenario was a break in a fuel line, catching the aircraft on fire with two personnel still on the aircraft.

The aviation task force safety officer, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lee Fuller said aviation had coordinated with the CBFD and the rest of the organizations to ensure everyone met their training requirements. Rehearsal exercises are required once a quarter to ensure everyone on base is prepared to respond to real-world emergencies.

During the exercise, the refuelers shut off fuel lines and evacuated fuel trucks. The MPs provided accident site security by blocking off the scene. The CBFD put out the fire and extracted the personnel from the aircraft.

“You try to get everyone to play along with the different operation centers,” said Fuller. “In real life an accident is chaos. Even if you have a pre-accident plan and you’re ready to go, things can still go wrong.”

The forward arm and refueling point where the rehearsal was conducted is one of the areas where aviation crew members assume the most risk, said Fuller. Th rehearsals are designed to be as realistic a possible.

“We try to add to the realism as much as possible by covering scenarios that are most likely to happen,” said Fuller. “If something happens in big Army or another branch, then we pay attention to those. I get into the details and try to recreate some of those scenarios. Errors in our procedures cause more property damage or even cost lives, and so we try to eliminate as many errors as we can by doing these procedures.”

Damian Gonzales, deputy chief of the CBFD, said his crew approached the exercise just as they would a real-world scenario.

“The idea behind the training is that our guys know to go through things as they approach the scene,” said Gonzales. “We call it a scene size up. We make sure the area is safe and develop a situational report based on what they see.”

The CBFD will continue to work with KFOR and carry out regular training exercises together. All of these proactive steps help eliminate response errors, minimize equipment damage and save lives.

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