THE fuselage of a plane lies on a Glasgow street as the emergency services race to the scene in April, 1975. No, don't worry if you can't remember it, as this was a major incident exercise in Glasgow's Kinning Park designed to test the city's police, fire and ambulance services. The scenario was a plane crashing into a double-decker bus with casualties on both. The Army produced the explosions and smoke grenades to give an air of authenticity.
However as The Glasgow Herald reported the next day: "The number of 'dead' passengers having a quiet smoke as they waited to be moved to temporary mortuaries tended to devalue the visual effect of a torn aircraft fuselage embedded in a partially demolished tenement." Some 400 rescues workers took part with the scenario also including looters and possible terrorism. An old Dakota plane was chopped up and placed around the crash site. So enthusiastic were the emergency services, recorded The Herald, that one fire chief bawled at Herald photographer Jim Hamilton to stop taking pictures and help with the stretchers.
Sad to think that some of the lessons learned had to be put into practice at the Lockerbie disaster the following decade.
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