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IN VIDEO and PICTURES: West Midlands emergency services crews out in force for mock plane disaster

Barely two weeks after a Russian plane plummeted out of the sky, West Midlands emergency services staged a mock crash of a jet brought down by terrorists.

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Fifteen appliances crewed by over 70 firefighters - none of whom had prior knowledge of the nature of the exercise - rushed to the scene to discover that an aircraft with 80 passengers had broken up in mid air and the wreckage was strewn over a wide area of Sandwell Valley Country Park on the outskirts of West Bromwich.

A technical rescue squad and a water rescue team from the Hereford and Worcester fire service and West Midland technical rescue squad were also scrambled to the scene.

West Midlands Fire Service simulated aircraft crash around the Swan Pool, at Sandwell Valley Country Park

To make matters worse it had come down in and around Swan Pool where a group of schoolchildren were taking part in an orienteering course at the time of the tragedy.

Police from the Midland Regional Tactical Training Unit who specialise in disaster victim identification and public order training were joined by colleagues from the Operational Support Group and other officers.

They helped scour the area for survivors, set up a cordon to keep out the public and helped put names to the dead and injured.

A member of a fire crew from Birmingham International Airport arrived with details of the people and cargo on board the doomed jet. Council staff were on hand to arrange emergency accommodation for the walking wounded while the environmental agency were also represented.

West Midlands Fire Service simulated aircraft crash around the Swan Pool, at Sandwell Valley Country Park

The role of the 100 casualties were played by young firefighters and air cadets. One injured man was stuck 20 feet up a tree while others were stranded on an island in the middle of the or fighting for life in the water.

A wounded passenger is stuck in a tree
A wounded passenger is rescued from the lake

Several dummies and fake body parts also littered the ground along with a plane seat with the remains of the pilot still sitting in it and pieces of wreckage.

A firefighter carries a 'victim'

West Midlands fire service organises around 100 exercises a year but only a handful are as large as the mock plane crash that was dubbed Exercise Up In The Air.

Crew Commander Wayne Turner from West Bromwich fire station who helped set it up said: "It took months to organise during which we had to meet with the other agencies involved as well as source and locate equipment."

Staffordshire Wing air cadets help out as the wounded

West Bromwich station commander Andy Rainey, who assessed the exercise, declared afterwards: "All those who took part got out of it what they wanted.

"It is important that we are prepared to deal with a plane being brought down by terrorists over the West Midlands, especially in the current climate. The bomb on the Russian passenger plane brings home the importance of us being fully trained and prepared to deal with a similar incident. The public are relying on us to be able to support them and rescue them if it ever happens and practice makes perfect."

A cadet calls for help

It is the latest dramatic emergency training exercise staged by crews in the region.

Earlier this month, a scenario was created where a driver had lost control of a car and it had run through a hedge, down a bank and finished up on a railway track near Bridgnorth.

Then a train had hit the vehicle, pushing it hundred of yards along the track, before the train managed to stop.

By the time the emergency services arrived at the scene, there were multiple casualties in the car and on the train, with a fire also having broken out in one of the carriages.

The exercise was staged at Eardington Halt, on the Severn Valley Railway line, about one and a half miles outside of Bridgnorth, on Friday.

The car and train carefully put in position on the track and then the people playing the casualties took their places in the vehicles.

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