Crash victims lay wounded in a field. Dozens of first responders picked their way through the debris field as smoke poured from the crumpled fuselage. Ambulance sirens wailed as the injured were transported to the hospital.

It was the best kind of disaster, the simulated kind.

Martha’s Vineyard Airport safety teams staged a disaster drill Sunday, simulating the crash of a 50-passenger aircraft short of the airport runway. The drill is required under federal regulations to assess the readiness of airport personnel to respond to a crash.

In one way or another, nearly every emergency agency on the Island, and some from off-Island, helped with the drill, staged near the Manuel Correllus State Forest headquarters off Barnes Road.

Cub Scouts and Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students volunteered to play victims, with frighteningly realistic make-up. Two Vineyard Transit Authority buses served as the wrecked plane, and everything from chairs to crowd control barriers to cast off parts of a front end loader served as wreckage strewn around the site.

Airport manager Sean Flynn said the drill went well, though some problems were identified quickly.

“We had some communication issues, nothing that we can’t overcome, but it could definitely be a lot easier,” Mr. Flynn said. “A large-scale incident like this, it became very evident.”

The exercise ran from 10 a.m. to about 12:15 p.m. During that period, the airport was closed to people and aircraft, except for Massachusetts National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard helicopters which participated in the drill, because most of the airport operations and safety personnel, and safety equipment, were tied up at the drill.

“We saw some great professionalism from our Island first responders,” Mr. Flynn said. “It’s amazing how you can take that many different departments and they all work so well together.

Over the next several months, airport officials will work with state and federal officials to assess the response to the simulated disaster, and plan improvements.

See picture gallery of disaster drill.