VIDEO: Airport Hosts Mock Terrorist Threat

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)- Being prepared for the unexpected is important for any and every emergency response team.

Tupelo emergency response personnel got to test their reaction skills during a mock disaster drill Saturday.

During this mock exercise, we’re told a bomb has exploded causing mass pandemonium and mass casualties.

“Of course you never know if someone is willing to make that kind of sacrifice how you can detect it. But in smaller airports like here you know the people are kind of use to the same people flying so if you have somebody acting nervous or acting differently sometimes you pick up on that. But it’s a very likely, it could be a scenario that could happen here,” says Tupelo Airport Authority Cliff Nash.

Tupelo Police Department Swat team is called in to secure the area and take down any remaining perpetrators. Tupelo Police Captain Rusty Haynes commanded the unit.

“It would considered domestic terrorism. All the information that we had as far as a scenario goes doesn’t make any foreign national group it would considered domestic terrorism,” says Haynes.

After the area was secured, EMS came in to evaluate and take care of the mass casualties.

“There was a lot of screaming a lot of role playing going on and it gave the guys an opportunity to sharpen up on their skills on how do you deal with those individuals because they did a good job of playing scared in the role playing that went on so that was a big evaluation, how do you handle the hysterical person and how do you deal with them,”  says Fire Chief Thomas Walker.

Even though this was just an exercise in light of the real terrorist attacks that have taken place across the country, participants realized that this was a great learning experience.

“I was the instigator of the whole situation. I was the one that carried the bag on that made the initial explosion which then caused the most injuries and then that’s when the swat team had been called and then the ambulance and all the emergency crew had come into there so it shows that it doesn’t take a whole lot to wreak havoc like this,” says the mock terrorist Jeffery Lane.

Like Lane Jordi Barrett and Alyse Adair are nursing students at Itawamba Community College. They both got to be hostages.

“Even though it was fake it was kind of scary because that stuff really does happen. but it was good experience for everybody I think” says Barrett.

“I thought it was scary but also comforting to know that they’re prepared in case something does happen. It definitely opened my eyes. I realize that you can’t save everybody. You can only save the savable, I think that was a big eye opener for me,” says Adair.

Adair believes the experience will prepare her and her fellow nursing students if something like this ever really happens.

The next FAA mandated mock disaster won’t be for another three years in 2020.