Most people around western New York know the media stories. They've seen the news footage on TV, have heard the 911 calls and the sheriff's dispatch and the eerily calm air traffic control radio transmissions first communicating with the doomed plane then asking other planes flying around Buffalo Niagara International Airport if they saw anything suspicious.
What many people haven't heard is the story from the firefighter's point of view.
Tiger Schmittendorf is the Deputy Fire Coordinator in the Erie County Department of Emergency Services in Buffalo and a nationally certified fire instructor.
"I was there that first day, probably within an hour of the crash and worked there along side them, through the night and then went on in a different role," Schmittendorf said in his introduction to the seminar. "Our goal today is to share with you a first-hand account of what those first minutes and first hours looked like."
"There's different levels of alerts - depending on the size of the plane or the nature or the significance of the trouble that's coming in," Schmittendorf said. "Alert 1 is typically for a small problem on a small aircraft at the airport. Alert 2 is a larger commercial aircraft, a more significant problem, Alert 3 indicates that there was a crash of a plane."
In his 10 years as deputy fire coordinator in Erie County, Schmittendorf had never heard an Alert 3 come across his pager.
"My pager said, 'Alert 3, report of a plane crash in to a house near Goodrich and Clarence Center Roads," he said. "I remember the two words that came out of my mouth. One thing my son knows is that I never swear in front of him and those to words caught his attention and he said, 'What's the matter dad?' I looked at him and I could hardly believe that I was telling him I was going to a plane crash."
Schmittendorf then played a number of recordings from that night, first from the air traffic controllers communicating with Continental Flight 3407 as the pilots made their descent towards the runway, then other aircraft in the area as Flight 3407 went silent, followed by transmissions to and from dispatchers and first responders in Clarence Center.
"Confirmed plane crash, this is going to be a major disaster," said the first sheriff's deputy that arrived at the scene at 10:18 p.m. during a radio transmission to the dispatcher.
"Listening to the clarity, and the calmness in the dispatcher's voice, I think set the tone for, quite honestly, the rest of the operation," Schmittendorf said. "I think that's a tremendous recognition of the professionalism that the Amherst Fire Control dispatchers have."
Chief David Case of the Clarence Center Volunteer Fire Company was sitting on the living room couch on his computer checking his email when he first heard the crash just a few blocks away.
"I heard, like was described in a lot of articles, a giant thud. Sitting there, you could hear it. 'Hmm, that doesn't sound right.'" Case said.
He got up and opened the living room curtains looked outside and didn't see anything, so he returned to the couch with his family.
"I sat back down, didn't think too much of it, then I heard the explosion," the chief continued. "Now mind you, I was a half a mile away, pager went off immediately just after the explosion."
When Case got into his truck and headed towards the village, he could see the glow in the night sky from the fire
"I've never seen that big of a glow before, I'd describe it as being maybe 80 feet in the air and you could see the smoke, even at night," Case said.
He described the conditions as cold, icy, with sleet and rain, "I think you had everything but sunshine."
Later reports from investigators indicated icing on the plane may have been a contributing factor in the crash though a final determination has yet to be made.
As Case responded to the incident, he expected a small plane, with one or two seats, maybe a disoriented pilot had skipped over a house and landed in a field. Schmittendorf and Case both said most of the people who were first on the scene didn't expect a large commuter plane crash.
Case and Schmittendorf showed a number of images of the crash scene and the surrounding area highlighting where the house at 6038 Long Street had been in relation to the runway approach and the fire hall as well as a graphical representation of how the plane landed, turned 180 degrees away from its intended destination.
Case also pointed out the minimal damage to surrounding structures including a garage only 18 feet away on the property and the neighboring houses and trees. While they were scorched in spots, they were spared the brunt of the damage.
Case said that after the fire had been put out, the debris from the house and the aircraft was in a pile roughly six feet high except for the tail section of the plane which remained intact.
They believe most of the fire was fed by the aviation fuel and a natural gas line to the house which they had difficulty shutting off because the usual shut-off valve at the meter was essentially gone when the plane slammed into the house.
"The things you saw on TV, the tail section, that's what we saw. There was no fuselage, there was no cockpit, there was no gigantic debris field, nothing like you see on TV," Case said.
Case said that the fire station was only 725 feet away, "this could have been the station."
He then pointed out the station on a satellite photo that was marked with the location of the crash site, the fire station, the incident command center, and the direction of flight travel towards the airport.
Case then described what kinds of assistance he needed for the incident. He and another chief divided the scene into two halves, one for the fire suppression and one for mutual aid and support. His first action was to do a search for anyone who might be hurt, either bystanders or passengers and crew from the plane. There was a creek in the area, a number of pools and other locations that had to be searched. He said that took about ten minutes and nothing was found.
"The second phase of the operation was obviously fire suppression, safety, life, property, everybody (in the fire service) knows that." Case said.
"It was organized chaos is what I'd describe it," Case said, "But, it was organized chaos because we started the incident command system."
The Incident Command System, ICS for short, is a method of command and control that began through wildland firefighting where command oversaw a wide array of terrain and resources across a variety of agencies and jurisdictions. The federal government put together a program that was mandated for all public service agencies to adapt to when operating in major incidents. That system was cited as one of the key components to the response to the disaster that significantly mitigated the effect on the surrounding neighborhood and the aftermath of the incident in the area.
"Everything that had to go right., went right," Case said adding that first estimates indicated a four to six week time frame for the initial investigation and cleanup effort. They were clear of the site in 18 days without a single injury to any of the roughly 1,200 firefighters, law enforcement, and investigators who responded to the scene that night and during the aftermath.
The incident command system was created as a means of unifying command and control over a wide variety of assets for a major disaster such as the crash of Flight 3407. The responding agencies included local, state, and federal law enforcement, investigation teams from the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office as well as a number of fire departments, and emergency medical services. Command centers were established as well as areas for people at the scene to eat, sleep, or take breaks, a place for media briefings and press conferences, and locations for family members of the crash victims to rest and to meet with investigators and officials that was kept out of the media for the protection of the families.
The presentation was given for the Southwestern Association of Volunteer Firemen (SWAVF) as an example of how the ICS system can be extremely effective in establishing control of a disaster, how to assess and implement tasks needed to deal with the incident and address whatever logistical needs that an incident would require.
Close to a packed house was on hand for the presentation which included many SWAVF attendees as well as local municipal officials from all over Chautauqua County and members of the Clarence Center Volunteer Fire Company
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