The survey entry team of Georgia’s 4th CST cautiously entered the darkened commercial aircraft. SSG Randall Boatner the survey team leader stumbles briefly on a lifeless body lying in the aisle, later identified as the terrorist suspect who set the deadly scenario into motion.

The silence of the cabin is interrupted by a persistent whimper of an infant and the voice over the intercom of an anxious air controller desperately trying to raise contact with the flight crew.

The flashlights of the entry team quickly locate two additional bodies in the cabin, the mother of the crying baby and a downed U.S. Federal Air Marshal. Evidence in the cabin indicates that an unidentified chemical agent had been released. The incident triggered a violent struggle between the Air Marshal and the terrorist. Both lay mortally wounded.

This was the training scenario played out in the very realistic training center of the US Federal Air Marshals’ Regional Office in south Atlanta. Over a period of eighteen months, Georgia’s 4 CST and the US Federal Air Marshal Service, a part of the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, have developed a highly productive and mutually beneficial relationship.

For this scenario, fifteen CST members and eight high tech response vehicles were sent racing toward Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport from their headquarters at Dobbins ARB in Marietta.

“We’re located only a dozen or so miles from the nation’s busiest airport, and these kinds of exercises are critical in keeping our people trained and ready to respond,” said exercise coordinator and Deputy CST Commander, CPT Darrin Smith.

Survey members complete a hasty recon of the aircraft, snapping pictures for evidence, and monitoring the cabin in an attempt to identify the agent released. Hand-held monitoring equipment register ‘hot’ for GB/Sarin, a deadly nerve agent. A crude dispersal device was located near the two liquids.

While this was the first experience working in the confined environment of an airliner, the CST members are well rehearsed in their actions and the calculated movements of each team member are well choreographed and continuously evaluated.

With the discovery of the injured passengers, the Incident Commander turned his immediate priority to life safety.

The whimpering infant is located in the clutched arms of her unconscious mother. Monitoring the infant’s condition, SGT Nick Agle carefully cradles the infant in his arms, and rushes her to waiting transportation and quickly into the decon tent where team members and CST medical specialists immediately begin to administer to her.

MAJ Steve Conley, the team’s Physician Assistant, triaged the child while team medic SSG Mike Reynolds put Children’s HealthCare Atlanta and the Atlanta Medical Center on alert.

While extracting the child, SSG Boatner detects shallow breathing from the Air Marshal lying lifeless in the floor. Turning their attention to him, survey team members labor in their Level B protective suits to slide the body onto a stretcher and carry him outside. In reality, the victim is a 200 lbs mannequin that strains the capability of the two team members and the waiting medical and decons specialists.

Throughout the simulated incident, 4th CST communications specialists have been in constant communications with local area hospitals as well as with security personnel and police from the Atlanta airport and Homeland Security representatives in Washington.

The unfolding drama of the terrorist incident played out at the US Federal Air Marshal’s regional training facility is not an uncommon training scenario for agents of US Federal Air Marshals. America’s Air Marshals train extensively in reacting to a variety of terrorist scenarios that could occur in the cabins of America’s airlines.

Over the past 18 months, Georgia’s CST team members provided Air Marshals with twelve weeks of intensive training on the detection, identification and handling of weapons of mass destruction.

“These are the real experts in the field.” said Steve Mosley, Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge for the southeast region. While Air Marshals receive some WMD training, “The level of training we received from the Georgia CST team is much greater and provides us with a better understanding of this subject, and of the procedures we must use in responding to such incidences” continued Mosley.

Within only a few hours this exercise ended. But as a result, Georgia CST members have gained valuable experience in responding to the kinds of threats that often creep into our thoughts as we continue to board the nation’s airlines in the post 9-11 security environment.