Practice makes perfect: Nashville airport, emergency crews train with mock plane crash

Nashville International Airport workers spent Tuesday morning in a full-scale training drill that practiced responding to a crash-landed plane on the runway.

Actors covered in fake blood, wearing prosthetics that looked like injuries, stood by a training plane engulfed in fire as sirens blared. Nashville Fire Department and the airport's Department of Public Safety worked together to assist "injured" passengers. They were placed in ambulances while firefighters extinguished fires on the mock aircraft.

It was all part of the airport's plan to maintain passenger safety and prepare for the unexpected.

The drill engaged the airport's Emergency Operations Center and coordinated responses with local law enforcement, airport officials and medical teams. The full-scale drill is mandated by Federal Aviation Adminstration every three years.

Airport operations were not affected by the training, but passersby may have seen smoke and fire, or heard simulated explosions.