Airport preparedness for mass disaster: a proposed schematic plan.

With the growth in the size of airplanes and the number of flights, the potential impact on airports of airplane-related disasters involving large numbers of people is increasing. Such disasters may result from accidents or terrorist activities. Although the development of plans for coping with such situations is a prerequisite to full certification of airports by the FAA, exercising the plans through disaster drills is only a recommendation. This has resulted in a situation where only a small minority of the fully certified airports are actually ready to handle a major disaster. Presented in this paper is a proposed schematic plan for handling the medical aspects of airport disasters, including a discussion of the relevant background issues.