Tonight’s training session saw 16 Team members travel to Manchester International Airport, to have a presentation from Leading Fire Fighter Paul Johnson, White Watch, on various aspects of aircraft scene preservation and also personal protection at an aircraft crash scene. This time we were lucky in the fact that the pagers did not go off for a search like last time. Paul’s presentation was extremely well received by all members present, it reinforced presentations by RAF Stafford MRT & BAE Systems Warton on what to do at an aircraft crash scene. The main difference this time was we were dealing with a civilian aircraft. Paul explained how various aspects of the emergency services call out procedure would be initiated by Air Traffic Control and how we, as part of this procedure, may be called upon. Power point & video presentations showed us some of the do’s & don’t’s, and also showed examples of what we may come across.

LF Paul Jonson, can be seen explaining the interior of the appliance to BMRT members.

Presentation finished, then Paul gave us the tour of the Fire Station facilities. Then the inevitable moment happen when, whilst showing people the Fire appliances, Paul asked Ged Clarke to open the station doors and then drove out one of the appliances into the compound, the look of delight on those who were inside the vehicle, was a Team Dinner moment. Iain Peel lived his fantasy of being in charge of the foam sprayer on top of the appliance, the vehicle then roared off to demonstrate its water spraying capabilities and we found out just how powerful the water cannon is !

Iain Peel, on cloud 9. On top of the appliance, in charge of the water/foam cannon, something tells me this could be his dream job !

Our thanks are extended to Paul and his colleagues on duty that night, for a very informative & enjoyable evening. Dear TL, they might have a 4×4 transit to get rid of soon !! – Love the Team