For years the aeromedical helicopters based in and around New York City and Washington have trained for massive urban disasters. Perhaps not as massive as the holocaust that the World Trade Center became–who could have imagined such a combination of terrorist act and terrifying high-rise fire climaxed by a multiple building collapse of geologic proportions?–but the kind of catastrophes big cities attract. Emergency crews in both cities were convinced that such a calamity would necessarily involve dozens of patients suffering from massive trauma, just the sort of accident victims that aeromedical helicopters are intended to save.
But the grim reality of large, heavily fueled transport aircraft slamming into buildings bore a grisly realization. There were very few injured. Nearly everyone within a given radius of either the World Trade Center or Pentagon terrorist attacks was killed. And all the disaster drills, motivated crews and well equipped aeromed aircraft in the world weren’t going to bring them back.
