Chugiak plane crash kills all five members of family aboard

Anchorage police said those killed were pilot Lonn Greiner, 46, from Eagle River; three of his children, Glory, 13, Nathan, 11, and Grace, 10; and his 69-year-old mother, Carolyn Greiner.

Police said they were headed to Seldovia, where they planned to overnight for the start of the Memorial Day weekend. A family friend said they were building a cabin there.

Witnesses said the engine of the green Cessna 180 sounded strong as it took off about 10:15 a.m., but then its nose pitched up sharply, it banked left and dropped out of the sky.

"It just looked like he couldn't push the nose down," said Brad Bartlett, a fellow pilot and friend of Lonn Greiner. "I watched it, but it's hard to say what happened. The engine was running fine; there was nothing wrong with the engine."

The plane was loaded with aviation gas that exploded when it struck the ground. Its fuselage and cockpit were badly burned.

"We went running over there, but they were dead on impact; it was engulfed in flames," Bartlett said.

The wreckage was oriented in a way that suggested the pilot was attempting to return to the airport, but that could not be confirmed.

Bartlett said Greiner did maintenance on jets at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and was known for his work with youth hockey. He had coached Bartlett's son, Bartlett said.

"He was a real stand-up guy," Bartlett said. "His whole family. His mom. His kids were good kids."

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Chris Shaver said in an early afternoon interview that the investigation had not yet uncovered a cause for the crash.

"Right now we can't speculate on anything with regards to circumstances," Shaver said. "We'll be looking at all aspects -- man, machine and environment."

Shaver said the plane is listed as a four-seater, but the fact that it held five doesn't necessarily mean it was overloaded, Shaver said.

The three children would likely have been sitting on a bench seat, with the two adults in front of them, Bartlett said. Greiner was new to the Cessna, which was likely carrying a full load of supplies, Bartlett said.

One of the witnesses, Joe Rinehart of Spenard Builders Supply, which operates a facility near the crash, said he was alerted by the fire.

"I didn't hear the crash, but I saw the flames shoot up," Rinehart said. He smelled fuel and ran over to look.

"All it was was wingtips, a tail and a smashed engine. There was nothing left -- there was no way to survive that."

At first, a gate blocked access to the Alaska Railroad property where the crash occurred, but Rinehart directed emergency crews through the SBS yard nearby so they could reach the wreckage.

The Alaska Railroad was asked to shut down rail traffic. By around noon, the line reopened with a freight train of hopper cars passing the crash scene.

Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.