Lauderdale airport workers may receive terror training

In the chaos during a shooting that killed five people at the Fort Lauderdale airport, few people knew where to go or what to do. Employees were unable to answer panicked travelers’ questions as they dove for cover or were haphazardly evacuated.

Under a new proposal, all workers at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Dania Beach would be trained to handle such emergencies.

The training would include the basics of first aid and CPR as well as evacuation procedures and what to do after the crisis is over.

Broward County commissioners discussed the proposal at Tuesday’s commission meeting and will vote on a specific training plan at a later date.

Five people were killed and six were injured during the Jan. 6 deadly shooting, but dozens more were injured in the scramble for safety. Getting them back into the terminals after the shooting was over proved equally problematic.

The training plan, backed by the SEIU, which represents airport workers, is similar to ones recently enacted at airports in Los Angeles and Boston. At Tuesday’s meeting, several

of the workers told their stories of the confusion that followed the shooting.

“Everybody wanted to follow me because I have a uniform, I have a badge, but I didn’t know where to go,” said airport worker Medjhie Bissainthe. “It’s very important to us to get that training.”

Jon McDuffie, a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles Fire Department who helped write emergency plans for Los Angeles’ airport, is consulting with the SEIU to develop training plans for workers at the airport.

“It’s well and good to have the sort of terrorism training at the airport for police and fire, but those people are going to leave at the end of the day and maybe never have to come back there,” McDuffie said. “[Airport workers] are the people that need training because they’re there every day.”