Who marks an NDA and who commands?

• A. The base fire department official marks the NDA; command shifts to local police unless agreements say otherwise.
• B. The senior DoD representative defines/marks the NDA; command normally shifts to the base fire department official unless agreements say otherwise.
• C. The aircraft captain marks the NDA; ARFF commands the incident.
• D. The civilian contractor marks the NDA; command remains with the responding unit.

Answer: (B)

In these DoD aviation incident scenarios, the on-scene authority and the boundary that defines restricted areas are set by the highest-level DoD representative present. That senior DoD official marks and defines the NDA (the designated no-go or protected area) on the incident scene. Once those boundaries are established, the responsibility for running the response typically shifts to the base fire department official, who will lead the incident management on the installation unless there is a standing agreement or policy that says otherwise. This arrangement ensures a clear line of authority for both security and firefighting operations, leveraging the base fire department’s trained ICS capability and the DoD’s oversight over sensitive areas.

The aircraft captain isn’t responsible for marking the NDA, and ARFF leadership isn’t typically defined by pilot authority. Local police may provide security, but they don’t normally command the ARFF incident. Civilian contractors don’t mark NDAs and don’t automatically assume incident command. If there’s a preexisting agreement that assigns command differently, that would govern, but the standard approach is marking by the senior DoD representative and command transferring to the base fire department official.