Re: initial dispatches for DCA plane crash

radio traffic from dc side of river

heard via openmhz

at 2049 pm - on Marine Interop 1 TG - somebody told DC Fireboat 2 that
they had received a report via the crash phone that a helo was down at
Regan Airport - that dispatcher might have been the DCPD Marine Patrol
dispatcher or maybe it was USCG

at 2051 - fireboat was saying something on the Main TG for DCFD - they
reported that FB2 and FB3 were enroute to Regan Airport

at 2052 - units were told to operate on Airport Channel 3 Lima

2053 - mention of a water rescue assignment - request for PG Co
fireboat and Alexandria FB 301

2055 - on DCFD Dispatch channel - multi units dispatched - sounded
like E7 E13 E18 Tr10 Tr7 Sqd3 Sqd1 HM23Foam 1 TCU Med Amb Bus 1 and 2
etc

2055 - DC Mike 1 underway - maybe dc pd police boat

2055 - DCFD E7 calls FB1 on DCFD Main Channel

you can see that it took 6 minutes for DCFD to get their main response
out the door

it seems that an alert 3 at DCA airport is pretty lame - just the
airport fd and pd units respond - and anyone else they think of asking
for - like random fireboats - maybe 1 fire truck comes from Dulles
Airport also

an Alert 2 at Logan Airport in Boston seems to get more of a response
than an Alert 3 at Regan - an Alert 3 is an actual crash - an alert 2
is a possible crash

Alert 2 at Logan gets all airport fire trucks plus 1 boston eng and 1
boston lad and 1 boston amb and 1 boston ems supervisor plus maybe 1
boston fd boat plus maybe uscg or boston pd boat

Alert 3 at Logan probably also gets 5 engines from boston and 2
ladders and 1 or 2 rescue trucks - maybe even a task force of heavy
rescue trucks

one thing that dampened down the Regan airport response was people
saying "a helicopter crash' - it was not just a helicopter crash by
any stretch of the imagination - but minimalization was running full
bore