CHEYENNE, Wyo. — An aircraft crash emergency simulation will take place at the Cheyenne Regional Airport on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
Every three years, the simulation is done to verify communication, coordination and response times from first responder agencies in the event a crash during a routine flight. The scenario is a possibility, as the airport has daily commercial flights to Denver as well as diversions during the year, according to a press release.
This year, the simulation falls on the first day of school for Laramie County School District 1. Despite the the large emergency responder presence, the simulation will not inconvenience students and their families, said Kyle Malacina, business manager for the airport.
“We will have signs up letting people know it’s a practice event and not a real emergency,” he said. “We will have police on Airport Parkway, but it will not be affecting traffic on Pershing or Yellowstone or any of the main roads.”
The airport is located at 4020 Airport Parkway. Nearby schools include East High School and Carey Jr. High School on Pershing Road. Central and McCormick Jr. High School are also located on Education Drive, near Yellowstone Road.
“It wasn’t until a month or so into planning it we were like, ‘Oh, it’s the first day of school,'” Malacina said. “We had already started planning it so much, we didn’t have a way to change the date.”
This exercise is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and finish in the afternoon. Malacina said the airport will not announce the exact end times or further details of the simulation, as it wants the involved agencies to react to as if it is a real and unexpected event. Malacina estimates that 125–200 actors, emergency responders and controllers will be on site.
In the last few years, the airport has undergone a phased rehabilitation, with the latest phase of runway rehab starting April 5. Commercial flights have been suspended since then, and are expected to resume around Sept. 10. The data are subject to change depending on the weather and other airport construction contingencies.
