Posted: Monday, May 13, 2013 12:01 am

By MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST Staff WriterThe Press of Atlantic City Media Group

It looks like a scene from a Hollywood summer blockbuster. But what it actually was, was an emergency preparedness exercise held Saturday at the Atlantic City International Airport.

"The whole purpose of today is really to exercise our airport emergency plan," says SJTA Executive Director Sam Donelson.

This exercise is required by the FAA, and offers first responders hands on field experience when responding to a airplane crash.

"Every 3 years we'll join with our local and federal partners, such as the TSA, FBI, county emergency management as well as many local paid and volunteer fire companies from around the region," Donelson explains.

The exercise will also help fire and police officials evaluate the emergency plans for the airport, federal, state, and local response agencies.

"This allows us to test our plan to see how well we can react and how well our partners in the first responders react as well," states Donelson.

Local hospitals also participated by receiving patients who were hurt in the simulated wreckage. The creators of the simulation kept it interesting as well, by not giving out any details of the exercise, even to senior officials.

"It's only a handful of people that actually know what's going to take place today, so they develop a scenario, and then we then react to that scenario," claims Donelson.