Fire Chief and Public Safety Manager Dennis Ray said there has never been a commercial aircraft crash at Durango-La Plata County Airport in his 27 years there.
He said smaller general aircraft incidents, such as flat tires or failure to deploy landing gear, occur infrequently – less than once a month.
But that doesn’t mean the airport’s Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Division can let down its guard.
FAA indexing
Despite having a record-breaking number of passengers in 2024 and ongoing construction of a new terminal in anticipation of continued growth, Durango-La Plata County Airport will remain an Index B airport for the foreseeable future, said Tony Vicari, DRO aviation director.
Indexes are a ranking system used by the Federal Aviation Administration to classify airports by the size and frequency of aircraft they accommodate.
An Index B ranking is defined by aircraft up to 126 feet in length, which describes the vast majority of aircraft served by DRO, including larger mainline aircraft such as the Airbus A-320, A-319 and some variants of the Boeing 737, Vicari said.
“We could have an infinite number of aircraft of that same size continue to use the airport, and (we’d) still fall into the same index,” he said.
He said the only factor that would bump DRO into the next index, Index C, would be if the airport began serving five or more daily departures of aircraft longer than 126 feet, which includes larger variants of the Boeing 737.
“We don’t see that as particularly likely, given the current direction and fleet for most of the airlines. But it’s not impossible,” he said.
If DRO did reclassify into Index C, it would need to readjust gate sizes and expand its Aircraft Rescue Firefighting Division fleet by one vehicle and increase its staff, Vicari said.
Aviation Director Tony Vicari said the airport acquired a new 4x4 Panther ARFF vehicle, manufactured by Rosenbauer, last month to replace an aging 1985 unit and remain compliant with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
The FAA requires an airport like DRO – classified as Index B based on size and aircraft frequency – to maintain at least two ARFF vehicles, he said.
He said the new Panther, which cost just over $1 million with add-ons, will become the fire department’s primary response vehicle once it is fully tested, moving a 2002 model into reserve status.
The Panther is a beast of a vehicle, spanning about 33 feet and weighing up to 57,000 pounds, depending on equipment. DRO’s model is equipped with rooftop and rear turrets to apply firefighting foam and water to extinguish blazes. Ray said the truck can hold 1,500 gallons of water, 200 gallons of foam and 500 gallons of dry chemical. Two pumps work to premix a 3% foam firefighting agent, ensuring the equipment is ready to go should disaster strike.
The ARFF vehicle isn’t the only update for DRO. Ray said the fire department is transitioning away from aqueous film-forming foam – an effective but carcinogenic agent – to a newer, safer firefighting foam.
He said jet fuel plays the biggest role in survivability of a crash.
“If you have a high-impact or low-impact crash ... and the plane has a lot of fuel, then it has a possibility of a fuel fire,” he said. “Our No. 1 priority is putting out a fuel fire and allowing evacuation of the aircraft.”
DRO’s fire crews tailor their response based on the emergency, which is informed by whether anyone is experiencing a medical emergency and the type and size of the aircraft involved. Ray said DRO lacks medical transportation and relies on Durango Fire Protection District for ambulance services.
In the case of a fire, the strategy is to create a rescue path for people evacuating the aircraft, said Dave Magee, DRO ARFF training lieutenant.
“We need to go down along the fuselage and cut a path of any fire so that people that are ambulatory (who can escape on their own) can get off that aircraft and get away from it,” he said.
He said it takes only 60 to 90 seconds for flames in direct contact with an aircraft’s fuselage to break through, so ensuring passengers a safe, fast escape is critical.
ARFF trucks and their turrets are specially designed for just such a task.
“You roll up, apply the agent, knock the fire down, protect that egress,” Ray said.
When DRO ARFF isn’t fighting fires or responding to medical emergencies – including altitude sickness, dehydration and fatigue after long flights – they are often inspecting the airfield or training, Magee said.
It conducted its triennial multiagency crash simulation at DRO one year ago, which involved about 70 volunteers dressed in varying degrees of gory makeup and mock injuries and the participation of nearly 200 first responders from law enforcement agencies, fire and EMS departments.
The training exercise used two school buses to simulate a wrecked, blazing fuselage resulting from a commercial aircraft that veered off the runway after landing and crashed.
Magee said he likes to mix up training routines. One routine involves firefighters navigating a course with an ARFF truck and using water turrets to knock softballs off cones. They must hit the softballs without toppling the cones.
Other days, Magee said, crews do “chalk talk,” or PowerPoint-based reviews of operations and procedures.
The crew consists of 11 dedicated firefighters and two reservists who are also employed in other departments at the airport. There are no volunteers on the DRO ARFF firefighting force, Ray said. FAA requires a specific set of training skills that are routinely practiced and reviewed annually.
“It’s not something that someone can just come in (to) as a volunteer,” he said.
Most crew members work four 10-hour shifts per week. The fire department operates during all commercial flights, measuring out to about 21 hours a day.
The department building is equipped with a kitchen and a break room, an operations room with radios and computers that monitor the airfield, and individual offices in an upstairs area – but it lacks a fire pole, Ray said.
Vicari said the last commercial aircraft crash involving DRO occurred in January 1988. The flight never made it to DRO.
Trans-Colorado Airlines, Inc., Flight 2286 was en route from Denver to Durango carrying two flightcrew members and 15 passengers when it crashed near Bayfield, according to a Jan. 19, 1988, National Transportation Safety Board aircraft accident report.
The report said the probable cause of the crash was the “first officer’s flying and the captain’s ineffective monitoring of an unstabilized approach,” noting the captain’s use of cocaine before the crash, which resulted in the deaths of both flightcrew members and seven passengers.
Ray said DRO has been fortunate to not have another crash like Flight 2286.
“Statistically, air travel is really safe. The airlines make it that way. They’re very cautious about conditions of their aircraft and safety rules,” he said.
Vicari recalled an incident last year in which a general aviation pilot radioed DRO because his or her instruments were indicating the aircraft’s landing gear had not deployed. The pilot took a low approach, allowing ground crews to visually confirm the landing gear had in fact deployed, and the pilot landed without issue.
cburney@durangoherald.com
