WICHITA – Every three years, the Wichita Airport Authority conducts an FAA mandated full scale disaster exercise. This year, the exercise will begin at 9:00 a-m, on Thursday.

The location of the exercise will be north of highway K-42, east of the approach end of Runway 1L.

The scenario for the exercise is that at approximately 9 a-m, a large commercial aircraft operated by Ancient Airlines, with a total of 78 passengers and crew on board, collides with a small general aviation aircraft carrying three passengers. The aircraft collide while the large commercial aircraft is taking off from Runway 1L. Both aircraft break apart and come to rest approximately 2,000 feet away in a field east of the runway.

At 9:02 a-m, Wichita’s Air Traffic Control Tower notified the Airport Police and Fire Division of the crash. The exercise begins.

Disasters of this scale are extremely rare and have never occurred at Mid-Continent Airport. However, federal regulations and good emergency management practices require that all commercial airports in the U.S. practice responding to these events in a simulated environment.

There will be about 300 people from 23 various agencies, departments, organizations and volunteers involved.