Hanscom firefighters first on crash scene

  • Published
  • By Mark Wyatt
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Firefighters assigned to Hanscom's Fire Emergency Services responded May 31 to Hanscom Field after a private Gulfstream IV aircraft departing the field crashed at the end of runway 11 shortly after 9:40 p.m., leaving all seven people onboard dead.

Despite the tragic results of the crash, Hanscom's firefighters did everything possible to rescue any potential survivors and to keep a terrible situation from becoming even worse.

Paul A. Seguin, 66th Civil Engineering Squadron Fire Emergency Services assistant chief of Operations, said that a recent exercise on the airfield played a key role in the response and collaboration with area town first responders.

Eleven days earlier on May 20, Hanscom Fire Emergency Services had exercised with local town first responders on the airfield during a Massachusetts Port Authority response exercise similar to the crash which they were called to May 31.

"Clearly having this exercise 11 days before this incident really played an important role in bringing everyone together and knowing what to do," he said. "Without question it played a huge role in the rapid response to this event."

Seconds after the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Control tower activated the crash network to alert the Hanscom Fire Station, local ambulances and Massachusetts State Police, as well as the 66th Air Base Group Command Post that an aircraft was engulfed in flames.

"The call came in over the internal PA system inside the fire station so everyone understood what was going on," said Daniel J. Dillon, 66th Civil Engineering Squadron Fire Emergency Services deputy fire chief, who was called in to assist with logistics. "Normally the call comes in with an in-flight emergency with details and this time the individual in the tower was very excited calling 'crash, crash, crash.'"

Within seconds all 12 Hanscom firefighters on duty responded.

"It was easy to spot where the crash was as soon as we got through the flightline gate," said Seguin. "Off to my right you could see the glow from the flames."

With flames shooting more than 30 feet in the air, the first crews on scene began trying to contain flames that reached temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees.

"The first arriving crew on scene was Crash 10," said Seguin. "Once that crew arrived and began putting water on it, Crash 9 began soon after."

At this point, firefighters from Hanscom and Bedford were doing all that could be done to contain the devastating fire. The first responding trucks began resupplying and another Hanscom truck was dropping lines to hook up to hydrants in the area.

"We went through the first tank of water and foam with both trucks and it was almost like the fire was laughing at us," said Seguin, noting that the fire's intensity hardly diminished.

The trucks hold enough supply of fire retardant foam to allow the discharge of water and foam twice.

"We were into that second discharge of water when we had the foam trailer brought out to resupply both of the foam trucks with more foam," he said. "It wasn't until after this point that the fire was beginning to come down some."

Once Seguin was able to get a tail number and confirm how many people were on board, he directed a crew to search for possible victims that may have evacuated before the aircraft caught fire.

"We were trying to do accountability, hoping that maybe someone got a chance to bail out before (the aircraft) came to a stop over a gulley," he said. "A Hanscom rescue crew, along with Lexington and Lincoln crews that were now on scene, completed a sweep from the runway down to the crash site hoping to find someone who was able to escape."

After completing that search, crews went back to the runway again and searched from there to the perimeter fences inward.

"Clearly not having any survivors was the most difficult part of this," said Dillon.

Once the fire was contained shortly after 10 p.m., Seguin and his team began the environmental work. He directed recalled firefighters who were arriving on scene to begin laying absorbent booms along the river to soak up hazardous fuel near the Shawsheen River.

"Bedford Fire then went downstream and dropped more," he continued.

Seguin had a total of seven Hanscom vehicles respond to the scene just after the initial call came in and stayed on scene until the area was called "fire safe" just after 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

Later in the day, the Hanscom crew was responsible for recovery of the seven victims.

"Our guys did a very good job working with Bedford Fire and their rescue unit as well as Waltham Fire and their rescue unit recovering the victims," Seguin said.

In total, firefighters from Bedford, Lexington, Lincoln, Concord and Waltham were all involved in the response.

A Critical Incident Stress Management Team is scheduled to be at Hanscom June 6 to provide post-crisis follow-up with Hanscom first responders.

The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the crash to determine the cause of the accident.

"I can't say enough about the local communities, as everybody worked together as a team," said Dillon. "It was a constant 'What can we do?' from our local community partners."