Every three years, the Wichita Airport Authority conducts an FAA mandated full scale disaster exercise. This year, the exercise will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 1, north of Highway K42, in between runways 1L and 14 at the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, 2277 Eisenhower Pkwy.
The faux scenario for the exercise is that at 9 a.m. an aircraft declares an in-air emergency to the air traffic control tower due to an issue with the right main landing gear. The aircraft has a purported 75 souls onboard with 2,500 lbs. of fuel and is landing on crosswind runway 14. Upon landing, the right main landing gear will fail and the aircraft crashes and comes to rest off the end of the runway. The exercise on how the airport and partner agencies would respond to this scenario begins at 9:30 a.m.
Disasters of this scale are extremely rare and have never occurred at the ICT. However, federal regulations and good emergency management practices require that all commercial airports in the U.S. practice responding to these events in a simulated environment.
In the event a disaster should occur, the airport would utilize X (Twitter) to provide real-time information to the public. During the exercise, airport staff will post simulated information on X from their channel, @FlyICT, using the hashtag #ICTdrill.
Any media wishing to film the exercise are asked to call the Airport Administration at (316) 946-4700 no later than 3 p.m., Wed., Aug. 30. Media attending the event must be at the Airport Administration Building, 2173 Air Cargo Road, on Sept. 1 by 8:45 a.m. to be escorted by bus to the crash site.
