DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies and the U.S. Coast Guard took to the water recently to run a full-scale drill simulating a commercial airliner crash in the Atlantic Ocean off Daytona Beach.
Rescue boats raced toward a simulated crash site roughly 500 yards off the beach, where smoke bombs stood in for the wreckage and smoke a downed plane would leave behind. Coast Guard helicopters hovered overhead, lowering rescue baskets and pulling volunteers to safety, while Sheriff’s Office drones provided aerial surveillance of the scene.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the exercise was larger in scope than previous drills the agency has conducted.
“This one has been several years since we’ve done something like this. We’ve done something on a smaller scale, but this bringing in the Coast Guard, FWC... we’ve done training in the county, but bringing in these other assets means a lot,” Chitwood said.
Crews worked in coordinated roles during the drill — some tasked with locating victims in the water, others focused on quickly pulling them to safety. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also participated alongside the Sheriff’s Office and Coast Guard.
Chitwood said that while a plane crash into the ocean is a rare event, emergency agencies cannot afford to be caught unprepared.
“If a plane goes into the water, there would be an active search, rescue and recovery mission in place,” he said.
The sheriff drew a parallel to another type of high-stakes, low-frequency emergency that law enforcement regularly trains for.
“It’s just like active shooter training. It’s not going to go — God forbid you have an active shooter — it’s not going to go the way the training scenario is, but you have to be able to use all of those tools and all of those techniques,” Chitwood said.
He added that the goal of training is not perfection but preparation.
“What you can do is hone your skills so when a scenario completely comes out of the ordinary, you’re able to adjust, adapt, overcome and utilize everything you have,” Chitwood said.