Actually that is another relevant point and particularly difficult in the new 'modern' world of cellphones. I've been involved in MCIs on beaches in the past where you're trying to coordinate between coastguard, lifeguards and EMTs all with their own dispatchers and with one facility trying to coordinate these moving parts. One of the huge issues in these cases is the calls coming in from side channels (e.g. calls direct to 911 from a mobile phone at sea, or from bystanders on the shore) which do more to confuse matters than help.

I can't imagine how many calls the 911 dispatchers got from 'helpful' people telling them a plane had crashed, and discerning individual casualties and their locations from the mass of reports will have been nigh on impossible. Plus once on the ground I imagine the paramedics were rightly under control of the local incident commander rather than 911 dispatch making the situation again more complex.

There may well be lessons to be learned about on-scene communications between local command, crew and the 911 dispatchers and possibly in the way that later units are deployed (i.e. should one unit go to other areas). But I'll wait for the report before rushing to any conclusions on this.