MERCER AIRLINES DC-6 CRASH DURING EMERGENCY LANDING VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA (USA) - FEBRUARY 8, 1976

摘要

This is the thirty-seventh of aseries of articles that will reviewhistorical Aircraft Rescue andFire Fighting (ARFF) responseswith significant lessons to learn.We will try to read between thelines of accident reports, magazinearticles, conference presentations,pictures, and other informationsources to attempt to determinewhat problems the emergencyresponders encountered,as well as their resulting size-up,action plan, and end results. Wewill try to learn from the past, inorder to be able to perform betterin the future. The accidents thatwill be reviewed in this series ofarticles can easily happen again.Our newer, younger generationof ARFF professionals may noteven be aware of these emergencyscenarios. The ARFF professionneeds to review and analyzeevery aviation accident oremergency response, no matterhow small, to learn what can bedone to plan and prepare forsimilar incidents in the future.We need to learn from our experiences.Unfortunately, thisdoes not happen as well as itshould or could. Although thereis plenty of information regardingthe facts and probable cause ofan aircraft accident, there is oftenvery little information availableabout the emergency response.Until we start doing this, we maymiss opportunities to improve, orworse, be doomed to make thesame mistakes.