Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 9:11 a.m.
RENO, Nev. - A dress rehearsal was scheduled for a performance hundreds of emergency workers hope they never have to give.
With sirens blaring and lights flashing, paramedics and volunteers playing the roles of fictitious plane crash victims were to descend today on a hillside park for a full-scale disaster exercise.
The simulated crash of a commercial jetliner with 130 passengers on board - played by a pair of city buses - was scheduled for Rancho San Rafael Park in the Sierra foothills about 5 miles northwest of Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
"This is going to be as real as it gets," said Adam Mayberry, chief spokesman for the Washoe County Airport Authority.
The joint exercise between the airport and the city will include all law enforcement, medical emergency, hospital and airport officials in the Reno-Sparks area.
It was being carried out in sometimes-gruesome detail, from injured actors missing limbs to a mock news conference and volunteers playing anxious family members awaiting updates at the airport.
"This exercise gives us a chance to have all area emergency responders work closely together to train for a real-life emergency," Reno City Manager Charles McNeely said.
The American Red Cross, Salvation Army and Federal Aviation Administration also participated.
"It allows us to work hand-in-hand with the city of Reno in a concerted effort to test our coordination and response together," said Krys T. Bart, executive director of the airport authority.
All airports regulated by the FAA are required to conduct such exercises once every three years, but most of those are conducted on airport property.
"It's more realistic for something to happen outside the airport boundaries," Mayberry said.
The worst plane crash in Reno history occurred just south of the airport on Jan. 21, 1985, when a Galaxy Airlines charter plane on a gambling junket went down, killing 70 of the 71 people on board.
Airport officials sent out notices to local media beginning on Monday to warn of the impending training exercise.
"Don't be alarmed if you hear emergency sirens or observe fire engines and police cars racing to Rancho San Rafael Park ...
"THIS IS ONLY A TEST."
Public relations workers across Reno were to play the role of reporters at the mock news conference at the airport.
Mayberry said participants would be in character "from beginning to end - from the time of the accident to the arrival at the hospitals and the coroner.
"It's really a full-scale disaster compressed into three or four hours - something that would take a series of two to five days," he said. "In the end we will evaluate ourselves to find out our weaknesses."
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