Crews doing aircraft, fire-response exercises at Sea-Tac

Published 3:44 pm Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Port of Seattle Fire Department is conducting aircraft fire-response exercises this week at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as part of regularly scheduled training on a runway closed due to construction.

Two exercises are scheduled each day Tuesday through Friday.

Passengers in the terminal may notice fire-response vehicles during daytime hours. But officials point out these are training exercises only and will not affect normal operations or airline flight schedules.

Port of Seattle Fire vehicles will respond to a mock aircraft located at several different positions on the closed center runway (16C/34C) during the week. Firefighter response will include water spray on the mock aircraft. The drills take advantage of the temporary closure of the center runway for pavement maintenance.

These exercises were scheduled prior to the recent aircraft incident in San Francisco as part of the port’s regular training exercises, according to the port.