Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital had just finished loading a patient into a helicopter for transfer to Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo.

As the helicopter lifted into the air, it experienced mechanical failure.

The chopper crashed into the south side of the helipad, sending parts slicing through the misty morning air and breaking windows along the east side of the hospital.

Everyone in the helicopter was alive, but some sustained severe injuries.

Complicating immediate response from inside the building was fuel leaking from the storage tank.

There were several people injured while watching from their cars in the parking lot.

One person was killed — “code black.”

There were people watching from the windows inside the Special Care Unit (SCU) who were hurt and covered in glass.

That was the scenario for the annual emergency exercise the hospital conducts with the City of Dowagiac, which sent police and fire personnel to the scene. A CEMS/Pride ambulance crew also responded.

This disaster drill tested the abilities and training of Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital staff to: operate under emergency conditions, work closely with outside agencies such as fire, police and EMS; react in a calm, controlled manner; and listen, take orders and follow those orders using the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

Since the mock tornado of 2010, the hospital added an incident command center in the basement, from where Cass County Emergency Preparedness Coordinator David Smith monitored developments.