SEATAC, Wash. — People traveling through Sea-Tac Airport beginning Tuesday may see some alarming sights, but the Port of Seattle says it’s only a drill.
Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper said in a statement the drills are “aircraft fire response exercises as part of regularly scheduled training. Passengers in the terminal may notice fire response vehicles during daytime hours. These are training exercises ONLY and will NOT affect normal operations or airline flight schedules.”
There will be two drills a day between Tuesday, July 16, and Friday, July 19.
As they progress, people at the airport may see fire trucks and other emergency vehicles rushing to a mock aircraft, which will be moved to several different places, depending on the drill. At some points, firefighters will be spraying water as they would in a real fire.
This will all happen on the airport’s center runway, which is currently closed for pavement maintenance.
Cooper says these exercises were scheduled well before the July 6 crash of an Asiana airlines Boeing 777 in San Francisco. In the past though, airports dealing with a major accident have found training makes a big difference in emergency crews’ ability to respond quickly.