A four-seater airplane on approach to Merrill Field just after 3 p.m. Monday crashed in a lot near the busy Northway Mall, just behind an auto service center and a stone's throw from a gas station lined with cars.
The two people on board, a man and a woman, emerged uninjured and ran to the nearby Xpress Lube for safety as fuel spurted from a wing tank of the smashed aircraft.
"It's a miracle no one was really injured," said one of the first firefighters on scene, Capt. Barry Clark.
Shoppers from Sam's Club, Home Depot and the many shops at the Northway Mall watched from parking lots as the Murphy SR 3500 Moose, a homebuilt kit airplane, dropped lower and lower.
The plane struck a parked Ford Bronco, twisted and spun around. Its landing gear collapsed, and the plane crunched to a halt between a light pole and two large shipping containers, about 50 feet from an Xpress Lube.
Greg Milligrock, 14, was riding his bicycle under the plane's path as it zoomed over the Sam's Club parking lot.
"It was so close. I got kind of scared," Milligrock said. "I thought I was going to fall off my bike."
"They were coming down really fast," said Jessica Krieger, who saw the plane hit her Bronco parked in the gravel lot outside the service center. A wing tilted over, hit one of the Ford's tires and took the brunt of the impact. The plane caught on the car and spun around.
"It hit the ground and bam!" said Angel Roman, an Xpress Lube worker.
Lt. Paul Honeman with the Anchorage Police Department said it may have been lucky that the Bronco was parked where it was.
"If it didn't hit that tire, it probably would have kept going right for the containers, and that would have been real bad," Honeman said.
Witnesses said people who saw the crash started running toward the plane to help when passenger Klista Redfield, 35, and pilot Leslie Gardner, 46, quickly jumped out and screamed to stay back because of the spewing fuel.
"The woman (Redfield) nearly passed out right there," Roman said, pointing to a spot in the parking lot just outside the Xpress Lube garage door. He and others pulled out a chair for her to sit on, he said.
Fireman Capt. Joe Albrecht said the engine was still running when they got to the plane, minutes after the crash. Firefighters blasted the wreckage with flame retardant foam. About 20 gallons of fuel had leaked before the holes in the tank were plugged, Albrecht said.
Police quickly cordoned off the area with yellow tape, warning dozens of onlookers to stay back. Spectators took photos with cell phones and asked if everyone was OK.
Wade Janssen, who has worked at the Xpress Lube for 10 years, said it's not unusual to see low-flying aircraft descending above the mall east of Merrill Field.
"The planes fly so low around here you can see the color of the pilot's eyes," Janssen said. But he said he has never seen a crash, although it has often seemed like just a matter of time before a plane would fail to reach the field, one of the busiest general aviation airports in Alaska.
Merrill Field airport manager Dave Lundeby said there are about 200,000 landings and take-offs from Merrill Field every year. In June, there were 22,000 take-offs and landings. The Northway Mall is directly east of the airport, and aircraft on approach to the field's east-west runway pass over the shopping center.
Larami Mosquete, who works at the Carrs Fuel Station at the mall, has been watching the planes fly overhead for the three years since he started work.
"It's so fast the way they come in," he said.
Mosquete pointed to a line of trees on Airport Heights Road, which divides the mall from the airport.
"It's like they barely miss those. Sometimes it looks like the wheels are touching the tops of the trees."
Gardner, the plane's owner and pilot, and passenger Redfield were taken to Alaska Regional Hospital to be checked for injuries. Gardner, reached by telephone at the hospital, said he and Redfield were fine but declined to say more. Both are Anchorage residents.
The Anchorage Police Department, Anchorage Fire Department and Federal Aviation Administration were at the scene of the crash Monday.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.
Daily News reporter Megan Holland can be reached at mrholland@adn.com.
