Lawrence County firefighters and other responders searched Thursday morning for a helicopter crash near Getaway, but the emergency turned out to be a drill.

Saturday, May 13, 2000

Lawrence County firefighters and other responders searched Thursday morning for a helicopter crash near Getaway, but the emergency turned out to be a drill.

Cabell Huntington Hospital officials, who planned the mock disaster with the facility’s medical helicopter, said Friday that not all local emergency agencies had been told about the drill, but added that those agencies would be notified in the future.

Wednesday afternoon, the hospital told Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Service about its exercise, asking officials there not to tell ambulance crews, SEOEMS executive director Eric Kuhn said.

"They said having the drill would actually test what happens in a downed aircraft situation, and said it was a good way for SEOEMS to test its response," Kuhn said.

Even the hospital’s dispatchers and helicopter crews did not know the crash would be an exercise, he said.

Kuhn and at least one other SEOEMS official followed the hospital’s request, but told ambulance crews to respond without lights or sirens when the emergency call came Thursday morning.

Not knowing the emergency was a drill, county 911 dispatchers notified firefighters, police and others. Area residents picked up the call on scanners. And television stations were about to report the crash as real, Kuhn said.

It is routine to drill various functions of the hospital, including those of the aeromedical unit, Cabell Huntington spokesperson Kathy Cosco said.

"But in our critique, it was discovered we had not directly notified Lawrence County 911," Ms. Cosco said.

The purpose of drills is to determine what things need to be corrected to make processes run more smoothly and the lack of notification was "strongly made note of," she said.

"Therefore, in the future, other parties will be notified should we be conducting drills in Lawrence County or anywhere a drill is taking place," Ms. Cosco said.

Kuhn agreed, adding that SEOEMS and other agencies should have known about the drill earlier than Wednesday afternoon.

"Drills do test things, but this tested the plans and procedures for the drill," he said.

Despite the confusion the drill caused, responding agencies handled the situation very well, Kuhn said.

"Although some might have said it was chaos, they found this aircraft in less than two hours," he said.

Speaking as a pilot, Kuhn said it usually takes five or six hours to find a downed aircraft.

"It sounds like the procedures in place work, including county firefighters’ and citizens’ and others’ responses," he said. "Everyone might be mad because they didn’t know, but if there’s any saving grace to this story, they did an outstanding job finding the helicopter."