SOUTH PORTLAND – When it comes to public safety around the airport, South Portland Police Lt. Frank Clark said it is always important to be prepared.

“We train for the worst and hope for the best,” Clark said, days after emergency responders had their training tested due a plane crash near Portland International Jetport. “In this case the worst happened, but that is what we are trained for.”

The preparation was tested Saturday when a single-engine, two-seat plane piloted by 42-year-old Mark Haskell crashed along Western Avenue in South Portland at 3:30 p.m. on July 17, not long after taking off from the Portland International Jetport. Haskell was killed along with his passenger, Thomas Casagrande, 66, a retired military test pilot from Portland and considered an expert on some190 types of aircraft, was also killed.

Haskell, who lived in Brunswick with his wife Alison and his children, bought the single-engine plane, a lightweight aerobatic trainer, in 2001 from the Romanian Air Force and nicknamed it Lizzy-Lou after their daughter, Elizabeth Louise, who was born the same day the couple signed the contract for the plane.

South Portland Fire Chief and Director of Emergency Managment Kevin Guimond said emergency crews, which included fire departments and police officers from both Portland and South Portland responded to the scene quickly after getting the initial call.

“I am very proud of the responders from both communities,” he said. “They did a great job in a very tough situation. My condolences go out to both families.”

Western Avenue was closed until Sunday afternoon as emergency workers secured the scene and representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board investigated the scene. No one on the ground was injured by the crash.

Arlene Salac, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration said the accident is being investigated by the NTSB and that it could be months before a final determination could be reached.

Law enforcement and emergency responders are well trained to deal with all kinds of emergencies around the airport, both large and small.

“The airport emergency plan for the Portland International Jetport requires that the emergency plan is exercised every 12 months,” said Portland police Lt. and Homeland Security Coordinator Janine Roberts. These exercises, she said, could be done in four different ways: tabletops, drills, functionals or full-scale exercises.

“Every exercise,” Roberts said, “is designed to test procedure, plans and policy and identify what may need to be changed.”

The Jetport’s emergency plan, which is based on federal regulations for an airport of its size, requires a full-scale exercise every three years.

Tabletops, Roberts explained, occur when various organizations, including police departments, firefighters, emergency medical service professionals and, depending on the topic, federal representatives, airline representatives and public information officers, work through various scenarios through a round-table discussion, testing policies verbally to see if they are still effective, are in compliance with regulations and aligned with procedures in nearby areas.

Drills are done when responders practice a specific exercise or scenario in the field and train employees how to use equipment and implement plans and procedures of emergency management.

Functionals, Roberts said, are a combination of tabletops and drills, with responders working in the field and administrators meeting through a tabletop session.

Full-scale exercises, which occur every three years, bring together all the various agencies that may respond to an emergency situation and test their skills by exposing them to a mock disaster. It is here, she said, where in the case of an airplane crash responders would focus on rescue procedures, fire suppression, scene security, crowd containment, and fatality management. Representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and Portland International Jetport management would also be involved.

Since she started in her current position in 2007, Roberts said, there has been a focus on water-based airline emergencies.

In 2008, the emergency exercise focused on an emergency situation at the Scarborough Marsh area near the airport. In 2009, after Chesley Sullenberger successfully landed a commercial airplane on the Hudson River to avoid a crash, a tabletop was held to examine how the situation may play out on the Fore River next to the airport.

That tabletop was expanded this year with a full-scale disaster drill in June, when a plane was simulated to have gone down in the Fore River near the Veterans Memorial Bridge connecting South Portland and Portland. A large barge was placed in the river, with blown-up dolls and members of the South Portland and Portland Dive teams acting as disaster victims.

Whenever there is a water-based airplane disaster, Roberts said, responding officers and emergency medical technicians work closely alongside the Coast Guard, Maine Marine Patrol and the Port of Portland Harbormaster.

Roberts said the annual exercises and the communication and relationship between the various agencies which respond in emergency situations make dealing with a disaster, when it occurs, much more efficient.

“It really helps us respond and be more effective in getting things done because we know what resources are out there and available,” she said. “These exercises, the rapport, and the knowledge we are getting both individually and as agencies and organizations is a huge plus to responding properly.”

Outside of drills dealing specifically with airport emergencies, Clark said, South Portland officers, like officers in surrounding communities, receive ongoing training and continuing education classes, such as ICS, or Incident Command System training, where officers learn how to compartmentalize and manage disaster situations.

When a disaster situation does occur, Clark said, a unified command system is set up and a standard operating procedure is put into place to get the situation under control.

Clark said the South Portland police and fire departments, along with their colleagues in Portland, respond to a number of issues at the airport where airplane pilots may call for help if he or she is experiencing a problem, such as engine failure. The vast majority of those, he noted, are dealt with immediately with no threat to the public.