Bioenvironmental engineers assess hazards at crash site Published April 13, 2011 By Senior Airman Clay Murray 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- Aircraft mishaps and accidents, like the recent A-10 Thunderbolt II crash in Laufeld outside of Wittlich, Germany, require coordination and assistance from practically every organization on base. One of the offices that plays a critical role in responding to an emergency like this is the 52nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron Bioenvironmental Engineer Flight. This flight, along with the 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron Emergency Management Flight, has a hand in providing specific information to the incident commander who is then able to make decisions to ensure public and worker health and safety. "With any type of emergency response, our overall job would be to provide the incident commander a health risk assessment," Capt. Alfred Doby, bioenvironmental engineer officer-in-charge, said. "With the HRA, he is able to make those tough decisions." Some of those decisions regard shelter-in-place, on-scene personal protective equipment and any necessary immediate and long-term monitoring requirements. Providing the incident commander an accurate HRA requires the bioenvironmental engineers to take various samples of the crash site. "As soon as we arrived, we took out some direct reading instruments and immediately began sniffing the air to see what the concentration was of volatile organic and inorganic compounds," Captain Doby said. "When we got our readings back they were extremely low." This indicated there were no immediate health concerns at the site or for communities nearby. Achieving accurate and appropriate samples of the crash site doesn't consist of an engineer walking into any random area and taking a sample. There are specific ways to get the most accurate results. Even though circumstances indicate the health risk for this mishap are low, the bioenvironmental engineer flight will continue working to ensure no changes have occurred. They will also initiate worker monitoring when the recovery and clean-up phase begins. "We really think this overall accident site was low-risk," Captain Doby said. "When an aircraft mishap occurs, it is possible to have gases, organic vapor and particulate matter such as fibers generated, which can potentially pose a health hazard." Some of the initial contamination concerns were JP8 jet fuel and other contaminants that could potentially be a chemical hazard. The bioenvironmental engineering and EM flights are responsible for identifying, quantifying and determining potential health risks associated with these hazards. "As soon as the plane went down, the German fire department sprayed a foam on the plane and used water to control the fire. This pushes the particulates to the ground," Captain Doby said. "We believe (contaminants) that could have been released were probably controlled by the water and foam. That will be confirmed when we receive our results back from the laboratory." Some of the sampling and measurements have already been carried out by the bioenvironmental engineers, but there is still work to be done. "Once they start to lug stuff out, we'll do it all over again," he said. "We'll monitor the air for particulate matter and we'll also monitor the air for chemical hazards."