Anchorage Daily News

A 16-year-old faces criminal charges after fleeing from a teen drinking party near Delta Junction and taking his family's truck airborne, Alaska State Troopers said.

Troopers early Saturday spotted carloads of teenagers headed for a spot at Mile 1408 of the Alaska Highway, about 14 miles from Delta Junction, said trooper Sgt. Tim Tuckwood. It's a big open spot, a gravel pit usually popular with ATV riders.

"It was graduation weekend, so they were probably just looking for a place that was out of the way. There were no neighbors around to report them," Tuckwood said Monday.

When troopers arrived around 1:20 a.m. to break up the party, most of the kids ran into the woods. Oleg Misyuk, 16, and a 15-year-old jumped into the Misyuk family's 2007 GMC truck and tried to zoom off, according to troopers.

Misyuk was driving and hit a berm that made the truck go airborne, flying 92 feet before crashing, the trooper report says. He and the passenger suffered minor injuries, but the truck was totaled, troopers said.

Misyuk was issued a summons for a minor operating a vehicle after drinking and then released to his father at the scene, troopers said.

The teen's father later told troopers that his truck was totaled after another vehicle hit it. The trooper investigation found that the truck was initially wrecked during the attempted getaway, but that after Viktor Misyuk picked up his son at the scene, someone broke out the pickup's windows and rammed the front of the truck with another vehicle.

More charges are pending, according to troopers. A handful of kids were cited for underage drinking, Tuckwood said.

"I think it could have ended really bad," the sergeant said.

He didn't know whether the teens in the truck were wearing seat belts.

The troopers who responded to the weekend party were off on Monday and not available for comment.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer.

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