State College Regional Airport Conducting Emergency Training Exercises

State College Regional Airport is hosting emergency trainings this week, culminating with a full-scale response exercise on Thursday evening.

Multiple live-fire trainings will be held beginning Tuesday, May 28, according to Penn State University Police and Public Safety. The drills will be led by 139Fire, which specializes in FAA-compliant live-fire trainings for airport rescue and fire fighting.

“During this time, community members may witness smoke and/or an increase in police and emergency response presence but should not be alarmed,” the department wrote in a social media post.

From 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, emergency response personnel from Penn State and municipalities throughout Centre County will participate in a triennial full-scale emergency response exercise, according to a university news release. Crews will begin staging equipment and personnel around the airport beginning at about 5:30 p.m.

The exercise will involve local police and fire departments, emergency medical services, airport traffic control tower personnel and other university, local, state, federal and community agencies. The airport’s Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting crews will be joined by an aircraft rescue firefighting mobile unit from 139Fire.

“The general public traveling on nearby roadways may observe emergency vehicles, smoke and a controlled fire, and should not be alarmed,” the university wrote.

State College Regional Airport will operate under its normal schedule during the trainings and full-scale response exercise.

The FAA requires airports all commercial airports to conduct a full-scale airport emergency plan exercise once every three years.