In pictures: Dummy 'disaster' for Shropshire 999 workers
[gallery] It looks like a major disaster – and for those involved it was treated as such. Fire engines, RAF personnel, police and ambulance all rushed to Chetwynd airfield, near Newport, after reports of a collision between two Squirrel helicopters.
It was all an exercise, but everyone called to the scene was treating it as authentic.
The dummy air crash was organised to test how the emergency services work together with the military and other agencies.
About 100 people were put to the test in pouring rain yesterday.
Squadron Leader Kim Leach, from RAF Shawbury, said: "It showed the co-operation and training between the military and the civilian services to prepare for such an emergency situation in Shropshire.
"This exercise is the result of months of careful planning to test personnel and equipment."
The exercise was conducted for most of the day yesterday, resulting in mock casualties and a variety of scenarios to test the RAF, police, ambulance, fire service, Environment Agency and the mountain rescue team from RAF Valley.
The routine exercise provided an opportunity for all the local agencies to work together and to understand the different capabilities that each can offer.
The event also allowed the local authorities and emergency services to test their off-site plans.
Alex Stylianides, RAF regional liaison officer for the West Midlands, said: "Exercises like this are important to test how different partners can work together in major incidents such as these. It tests things like health and safety and making sure sites are secure.
"It also allows us to work on things we can improve on."
He added that yesterday's pouring rain was also good for testing how they can operate in "adverse" weather conditions.
Neil Griffiths, incident commander at Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, said about 30 firefighters from five crews took part in yesterday's exercise.
"It is very important. We are usually one of the first on scene to incidents like this and it is important we ensure people on the site are safe and the incident doesn't escalate," he said.
"We take part in regular exercises. If a situation like this happens for real we need to be prepared to react and make sure our provision is robust."
Andy Johnson, team leader of the RAF Mountain Rescue Team, said they had about 15 members on the scene yesterday.
"It is an important exercise for us and it test things like call-out procedures and things like preserving the scene. It is also important we liaise with civilian agencies and establish who is doing what on the scene."
Lyndon Essex, from the Environment Agency, said: "It is important to run through scenarios like these to see if systems work correctly, and highlight things to improve on and things that might not be quite right.
"When we arrive we gather information about the site and feed back to our control room to make a decision on what action we need to take."
Squadron Leader Kim Leach, corporate engagement relations officer at RAF Shawbury, said: "We are aware of several crashes involving aircraft that have happened recently. It is important to have these exercises."
