The ERP is a formal regulatory requirement under FAA Order 8900.1 — asigned attachment to the CoW application. It is not an informal checklistand cannot be treated as one. The event director, airport coordinator, orAir Boss may draft it — but regardless of who writes it, the Air Boss mustcritically evaluate it before accepting it as operationally valid.

What does that evaluation look like?

Work through the key structural elements. Lines of authority first: doesthe ERP explicitly name the Air Boss as authority over aerial activity? Is theIIC named? Then personnel and roles — every key position needs a namedindividual and a backup. ARFF, EMS, and airport operations all need toappear. Communications net: all frequencies listed explicitly, and the AirBoss frequency must be in there.

Landing zone and activation triggers are the other pieces.

The EMS helicopter landing zone must be designated, clear, andaccessible at all times — not just at the start of the show. And activationtriggers: what events actually activate the ERP? Make sure the thresholdis appropriate for this show’s risk level. A trigger that’s set too high meansyou’re running manual incident response before the ERP is even activated.

And the Air Boss role during an actual incident?

Call KIO, secure the aerial situation, maintain situational awareness fromthe Air Boss position. You do not enter the incident area. Your functionduring a ground incident is to provide aerial SA to the IIC. The IICcommands the ground response. After an incident, coordinate with theevent director on show continuation — that decision involves both of you.

The escalation path matters too. What does that look like?

Air Boss calls KIO and manages the aerial picture. IIC takes incidentcommand on the ground. Emergency services execute their assignments.FAA and NTSB notification follows as required. Each level has a distinctfunction — the ERP names who executes each step so no one isimprovising when time matters most.