Emergency Drill Planned at University Airport

                         NEWS ADVISORY:
          EMERGENCY DRILL PLANNED AT UNIVERSITY AIRPORT


     An exercise to test the readiness of The Ohio State
University Airport and local agencies to respond to an aircraft
accident will be held Thursday, Dec. 16, at Don Scott Field.

     Although the drill will be limited to the airport area,
agencies participating in planning and conducting the exercise
will include the Columbus divisions of Fire and Police, Franklin
County Coroner's Office, Franklin County Emergency Management
Agency, The Ohio State University Hospitals, Riverside Methodist
Hospitals, University Police, Ohio Highway Patrol and the Federal
Aviation Administration.

     The event, which will run from 9:50 to 11:30 a.m., will
include a news media briefing, scheduled for about 10:20 a.m.
Media arrangements, in fact, are a part of the disaster drill,
according to Airport Director Kenneth Newstrom.

     The exercise will help each agency become familiar with the
airport facilities and understand how each agency's function
relates to the other responding agencies through implementing
existing plans on how to react to such an incident.

     As a federally certified airport, University Airport is
required to conduct such an exercise periodically to test airport
emergency plans and those of the agencies that would be called
into action under such circumstances.  Although this exercise
will be considerably smaller in magnitude compared to similar
drills conducted at Port Columbus International Airport, it still
will encompass the full range of interagency coordination that
becomes necessary in such circumstances.

     Reporters who wish to cover the drill should enter the site
off Ohio 161 west of Ohio 315.  Driving west on Ohio 161, turn
left onto an Ohio Department of Transportation access road just
west of the Ohio National Guard's Beightler Armory.  For
information on the drill, contact Kenneth Newstrom, airport
director, at (614) 292-5460.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 10 Dec 1993 11:47:47 -0500 (EST)]
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