When a small plane carrying two people crashed outside of Powell earlier this month, it resulted in no injuries and required a relatively standard response from first responders. But on Saturday morning, area firefighters, EMTs and others got a glimpse at what a much larger and more severe crash might look and feel like.

Yellowstone Regional Airport (YRA) hosted a full-scale mass casualty drill that simulated a 50-passenger plane crash. Under the scenario, the aircraft experienced a mechanical failure and came down just short of the Cody facility’s runway. A total of 49 volunteers spread across the grassy area off Beacon Hill Road, playing the role of passengers in conditions ranging from dazed to dead.

As an airport that serves commercial aircraft, YRA is required to hold such a drill every three years, and it offers valuable training for first responders.

Following the 9 a.m. “crash,” a host of emergency personnel hustled to the scene, which featured an old plane fuselage plus a school bus standing in as the back end of the aircraft.

Loaded up on a fire truck from YRA, several trucks from the Cody Volunteer Fire Department, four ambulances from Cody Regional Health, one from Powell Valley Healthcare and helicopters from both Guardian Flight and First Flight of Wyoming, personnel worked to triage the injured. The responders loaded the wounded on ambulances and choppers, shuttling them to staging areas to simulate transportation.

When other personnel from YRA, the Park County Sheriff’s Office, Park County Public Health and the county’s Community Emergency Response Team are added in, roughly 100 people participated. Cody Police also controlled traffic on Beacon Hill Road.

Planning the hour-and-a-half-long drill took about five months, said YRA Operations Supervisor Klay Nelson. That included plenty of outreach for volunteers, including recruiting nearly a dozen “victims” from the Cody drama club.

Park County Homeland Security Director Jeff Martin said the screaming and crying provided by the actors added some emotion that simply can’t be captured in a tabletop exercise. Coordination and communication are always a challenge in a crisis, and it took time for the responders to get organized from the chaos of first arriving on scene. But paramedic Casey Sheets of Cody Regional Health described himself as impressed with the group’s collective efforts, noting how they became more and more organized as the drill progressed.

“We definitely learned a lot,” Nelson said, “but it went really well — as good as it could.”

One coordinator remarked that an actual plane crash would be “a mess,” and “is why we’ve got to practice,” Nelson said.