Centennial Airport Drills For Nighttime Plane Crash Potential

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - Centennial Airport conducted crash drills recently to prepare for the unthinkable: a fiery nighttime wreckage with several casualties.

It's the worst-case scenario to make sure first-responders are at their best, should this kind of emergency ever happen.

"We want to make sure those skills are prepared and well-honed in the event that we do (have a crash)," Deborah Smith of Centennial Airport told CBS4.

There has only been one accident at the airport in the last decade.

South Metro fire crews worked to put out the fires around the plane during the drill, then made their way in to the broken and smoky fuselage to search for victims.

A medical helicopter was flown in to transport the wounded during the drill.

"No emergency is ever like the last one," Becky O'Guin with South Metro Fire said. "Jet fuel is different than regular gasoline so they train on things like that -- hazmat, mass casualties."

While this scene may have been staged, it's invaluable training that is as close as it can get to a real-world disaster.