Dominic Eritano, Director of the Devils Lake Regional Airport, confirmed an incident that occurred Sunday, Dec. 21, involving an emergency landing of a passenger plane due to experiencing decompression while en route to another destination. Eritano stated that since the incident is under investigation, he was unable to provide further details, except to verify that there were no injuries. He added that the incident should not affect travel plans during the holiday season to or from Devils Lake, but couldn’t say when the investigation would be completed.
Devils Lake Fire Chief Nate Bennett, who helped coordinate the local first response to the airport to meet the emergency landing, said it couldn’t have gone better. Recently, the city’s volunteer fire department had taken over managing the airport’s Aircraft Rescue Firefighting (ARF) so Bennett and his team with Devils Lake Rural Fire, Ramsey County Sheriff’s officers, Devils Lake Police Department, and EMS were all on hand in case they were needed.
He told the Journal that word came out initially through the air traffic control tower at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport which then called to dispatch 911 here in the Lake Region, to prepare for an emergency landing due to loss of cabin pressure.
Bennett stated that the groups’ responses were “phenomenal.” He added that his team at the fire department train with other local first responders every three years in emergency drills to prepare for incidents like this. While writing up his after-action review of the handling of the incident two days later, Bennett remained greatly impressed with his teams’ “real-world response.”
“I am proud of how everyone handled the situation,” he said.
