Air Delivery Branch performs realistic emergency scenario
“Seeing somebody not get up is one of the scariest things you can see on the drop zone,” shares Staff Sgt. Ahmed Elinbabi who has been a drop zone medic for nine years and currently serves as the drop zone medic for the Airborne Test Force (ATF) at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG).
The ATF falls under the Air Delivery Systems Branch which tests both cargo and personnel parachutes meaning the crew has an inherently dangerous job.
Air Delivery Systems Branch personnel along with Soldiers from the ATF recently hosted a full-scale medical emergency exercise. The realistic training scenario was the capstone to a weeklong of safety training during Air Delivery’s yearly safety stand down, where personnel take a week to review the standard operation procedures through class work and hands-on learning.
Joe Castillo, test parachute program manager for the Air Delivery Systems Branch explained, “We want to make sure that everyone knows what that process is if we do have a malfunction, causality, or accident.”
The training on July 1 gave the crew an opportunity to refresh their knowledge and practice their role during an accident. The crew was aware the entire event was for training purposes yet only a few key people knew about the injury scenario to keep the training as realistic as possible. YPG’s range control, mission control, and Careflight each played their role as if the training was a real emergency.
At the drop zone, the first set of jumpers landed with no issue. During the second flight a jumper landed and stayed on the ground. The ATF drop zone safety officers and medics immediately mobilized.
“Even though they knew it was training they ran over there because they were genuinely scared for them and they wanted to be able to help and check them and make sure they are okay,” explained Elinbabi, who was the senior medic on the scene, “The senior medic takes control of the situation, and we work together like a well-oiled machine. We work with the DZSO to make sure the lines of communication are open and everyone knows what going on and we have situational awareness.”
The assistant DZSO, or drop zone safety officer, is the communicator between the ground crew and those at range control.
“He’s like the heart of the operation. So making sure he’s calm and he’s relaying information from scene to emergency responders is key,” explains Castillo.
The Soldiers had controllers assessing their actions and feeding them information on the patient’s condition for the scenario. Once the medics knew the extent of the mock injuries the Soldiers and civilian riggers worked to stabilize the mock injured jumper for transport to a trauma center.
Elinbabi explained, “Everyone wanted to provide some kind of help but they were also out of the way until I asked them to help.”
When called into action, they each worked calm and efficiently.
While the ADZSO called for range control and requested air transport from Careflight, the ground crew had 25 minutes or so to prepare the patient for transport. Having the patient “packaged” made picking up the patient easier and more time efficient for the helicopter crew.
Overall, those involved in preparing this hands-on training for the Air Delivery personnel were pleased with the results.
“They did great. They went to the injured jumper, they accessed the situation. They implemented the safety measures to the jumper and then called the medivac. There’s a few things they need to work on but that’s the reason we are doing this exercise,” shared ATF Master Sgt. Loreto Rivera following the day’s outcome.