DART pilot, ground crew prepare for real thing

PORT ANGELES — The sun was shining and a light breeze blew from the west as pilot Mike Kitz reviewed his takeoff checklist and taxied his Cessna 172 down the William R. Fairchild International Airport runway.

Stowed aboard the single-engine, four-seat airplane was 195 pounds of life-saving cargo. Kind of.

The cargo was actually bottled water and its destination, Blue Ribbon Farms Airport in Sequim, was hardly in need of hydration.

But in the case of a catastrophic event, Kitz could be delivering the real thing: medicine, emergency supplies, food or first responders to a community on the North Olympic Peninsula isolated by a road washout, devastated by an earthquake or battered by a tsunami.

Kitz was one of 10 pilots and eight ground crew participating in a Clallam County Disaster Airlift Response Team (DART) training exercise Saturday, packing, weighing, loading and delivering more than 4,000 pounds of donated food and water to five airports on the Peninsula from which it would be distributed to local food banks.

Emergency-response exercises like Saturday’s prepare DART’s all-volunteer team for the after effects of a natural disaster that could wipe out roads and bridges, shut down land line and cell phone communications and create medical crises.

It was the first exercise in three years due to pandemic restrictions, said Alan Barnard, Clallam County DART’s founder and chairman.

“We try to get as large a group together as possible, find our areas of weakness and fix them,” Barnard said.

Last month, two DART pilots made four trips to Bellingham to pick up the donated food for Saturday’s exercise that would be distributed to local food banks from each destination: Blue Ribbon Farms, Diamond Point and Sequim Valley airports (Sequim Food Bank); Sekiu Airport (Hope Food Bank); and Quillayute Airport (Forks Community Food Bank).

The food and water DART delivers not only benefits local communities — it stands in for the payload that would be carried during an actual event.

Ensuring that airplanes are not overladen and cargo is evenly distributed in the fuselage and cockpit area is critical for pilot safety.

Mike and Shar Sanford’s job Saturday involved weighing every single box, bag and carton that would be loaded onto an airplane and then writing the number where it could be seen with a large black Sharpie.

A cardboard box containing 12 cartons of organic soy milk? 27 pounds. A four-pack of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinners? Just under 2 pounds.

The Sanfords began volunteering as ground crew with DART since it began in 2018 after seeing Barnard interviewed on television.

“I said to Mike, ‘That sounds interesting, let’s do that,’” Shar Sanford said.

Neither of the Sanfords are pilots, which she said did not keep them from becoming involved with DART.

“Why wouldn’t I want to do this?” Shar Sanford said. “We want to make the community better, and if there is a big earthquake, people are going to be in trouble.”

Barnard said ground crew like the Sanfords was just as critical to DART’s effectiveness as its pilots. In a disaster, ground crews need to be able to prepare supplies, and load and unload airplanes quickly and efficiently so that pilots would not have to leave the cockpit and thus be ready to take off as quickly as possible.

On Saturday, a five-member Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) from the Blue Ribbon Farms Property Association in Sequim participated in a DART exercise for the first time by unloading Kitz’s airplane. The CERT ground crew had been briefed on safety and protocols: don’t approach the plane until the pilot gives the signal; don’t touch the propeller; avoid walking under the wing. They waited until Kitz gave the signal before moving toward the plane to unload the bottled water.

It was quick, efficient and good practice for an actual emergency.

That actual emergency did occur in November, when DART was activated for the first time. Massive flooding and slides on state Highway 112 cut off most access to the West End, and a mud slide damaged a water main in Sekiu, which was left without potable water.

“We were activated at 11 a.m., and by 1, we had six pilots,” Barnard said. “In 24 hours, we delivered nearly 7,000 pounds of water. It went great.”

Not all DART pilots deliver supplies, however. Saturday’s exercise included two damage assessment flights, one to the west end and one to the east end of the county. In the event of an actual disaster, these pilots would be responsible for visually identifying damaged roads and bridges.

“They have a map with specific points to inspect from the air,” Barnard said. “They take photos if they can and make a report to the emergency operations center here (at the airport).”

Saturday was Kitz’s first DART exercise. Like the other DART pilots, he won’t be compensated for the fuel he burned on the short flight, (it’s against FAA regulations), but that wasn’t a consideration when he decided to volunteer.

“This gives you a chance to do something good for the community,” Kitz said. “You hope you never had to do it for real, but you want to be prepared if it happens.”

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.