DuPont, WA – In what can be described as yet another in a long line of extremely strange “coincidences,” numerous agencies were preparing to conduct training for a “mass casualty incident” with DuPont City Mayor Mike Courts at the same time that an Amtrak train derailed and killed three people, according to an early report on the incident by a local ABC affiliate.

The ABC reporter notes, as seen in the video below:



“The Mayor tells me, ironically, today–they were doing training for a mass casualty incident and that he was here along with many other agencies planning their day when this situation and news developed.”

The train was traveling over 80 mph in a 30 mph zone, when it jumped the tracks, striking and killing three people, while leaving over 100 injured, according to reports.

Oddly, similar situations played out during the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks, the July 7, 2007 London subway bombings, and the Paris theater attack on November 13, 2015—which all saw training drills taking place virtually simultaneously to the real-life event for which they were training.

During the Paris attack, which left over 158 dead, Paris-area emergency personnel and ambulance crews were taking part in a simulated emergency exercise on the very same day the terrorist attacks took place.

The exact nature of the drill was a simulated mass shooting attack, according to Dr. Mathieu Raux, emergency room chief at the Pitié-Salpetrière hospital in Paris.

According to a report by Bloomberg:

During Friday’s exercise, trauma specialists used a centralized dispatch system to set priorities and direct victims to the ER best equipped to treat their injuries. Ambulance services made sure they were ready to roll, and hospitals verified that surgeons and staff could be quickly summoned to treat arriving victims. “We tested every link in the chain,” Raux said. Because Paris emergency physicians work 24-hour shifts, virtually every ER doctor on duty in the city Friday night had already taken part in the exercise earlier that day.

While Paris-area emergency crews have regularly practiced emergency exercises since the attacks at Charlie Hedbo in January, in which 16 people were killed, the fact that the simulated emergency exercise and the actual events in Paris virtually mirrored one another raise some intriguing questions.

What makes the aforementioned cases noteworthy is that this is not the first time that these types of emergency drills for the exact scenario unfolding were taking place at virtually the same moment the actual incident began.

During the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) was in the midst of a training exercise called Vigilant Guardian, which “coincidentally” simulated planes being hijacked by terrorists.

A story in Aviation Week made clear the connection between the 9/11 attacks and the NORAD drills taking place at virtually the same moment: