Most of us in the United States have a local or municipal airport nearby. They range from the private homeowner and his grass runway - to the small town or privately owned airport - to the bigger FAA controlled and certificated airport.
Regardless of the size of your nearby airport. Structural firefighters have a new hazard to deal with when responding to and sizing up a downed aircraft. BRS -Ballistic Recovery Systems or Ballisitic Parachutes!
I teach alot of firefighter training. Some of which is type specific like Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting. But with other types of firefighter training, the subject I bring fourth today, is one that can bite fiefighters in a town even without an airport...
The firefighter's personal safety hazards are clearly "less" when the aircraft has previously glided down like the one in the photo above. The ballistic rocket charge has been expelled and the parachute is pretty visable upon the first due company's size-up.
The greater hazard or the hazard I want to talk about today is when that aircraft appears to "just be a little general aviation aircraft" that is crashed into the woods, field, neighborhood without the obvious parachute present.
Our military brothers are more than familiar with the hazards associated with pilot ejection systems and weapons contained within military aircraft. But now the average firefighter, regardless of your status, who may not even be ARFF trained, needs to understand that general aviation aircraft may contain these ballistic systems. Cirrus is just one manufacturer of an aircraft that have the system installed at the factory, but there are now other companies who are retro-fitting older general aviation aircraft for the added protection of the occupants.
Please take 21 minutes of your day, 21 minutes of your shift's day or 21 minutes of your next department's training meeting to review this FREE, narrated, powerpoint and video lesson from the FAA.
http://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/aircraft_rescue_fire_fig...
It just may save your firefighter's life at the next aircraft response...
FETC
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