Aircraft firefighters practice skills at Hartsfield-Jackson

The drills using real jet fuel sent a column of black smoke into the air Monday morning and early afternoon, burning about 1,500 gallons of jet fuel for the exercise. The smoke during the airport's regular firefighting training often prompts hundreds of calls from concerned residents.

"It's a real fire, it's the best thing that a firefighter can train," said Markus Kleist, a firefighter and Swiss Air Force project engineer. "Very interesting, very hard."

Credit: Kelly Yamanouchi

Credit: Kelly Yamanouchi

The airport holds such drills for ongoing training of its own firefighters, and opened up the facility to the conference delegates this week.