If a massive disaster affected U.S. troops or civilians overseas, Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport would serve as an entry point for casualties well enough to travel.
To test the logistics of receiving mass casualties at the region?s airport and then transferring them to hospitals, military and civilian emergency response teams will conduct a drill beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday.
The event is the first military and civilian exercise in Maryland in 20 years, and marks the first time BWI has been tested as the principle mass casualty intake center.
Organizers said travelers should not experience any travel delays as a result of the exercise, but might catch a glimpse of emergency equipment on the tarmac.
John Donohue, director of regional programming and emergency operations for the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services, said the drill would test the communications system between the military and civilian hospital systems.
About 20 Civil Air Patrol cadets dressed up as mock military casualties will be flown into the airport on a C-130 cargo plane from Martin State Airport in Essex. Military and civilian first responders will then triage the patients and send them off to local civilian hospitals.
About a dozen ambulances from surrounding jurisdictions will be asked to participate in the drill, but Donohue said emergency responses in the region would not be impacted. First responders are expected to stand by at Preakness events at Pimlico in Baltimore and the air show at Andrews Air Force Base.
The drill will be a test of the newly revised National Disaster Medical System, a protocol designed to coordinate civilian hospital facilities in the event military facilities are overwhelmed. While the system has never been activated in Maryland, it was implemented in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to transport patients from New Orleans to other hospitals in the southeast.
