Small plane’s landing gear collapses at Anchorage airport

A runway at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport was closed for hours Saturday after a small plane's landing gear collapsed.

The Beechcraft King Air plane was operated by Bering Air and was on a medevac flight from Nome to Anchorage, said Clint Johnson, chief of the Alaska regional office of the National Transportation Safety Board. It was carrying a patient and two attendants along with the pilot, he said.

"The airplane ended up basically on its belly," Johnson said. "The gear collapsed on landing."

There were no injuries from the landing, Johnson said, and the patient was transported to the hospital, which was where the patient was heading anyway, Johnson said.

"We're in the process of determining the extent of the damage" to the plane, he said.

The runway in question — the airport's southernmost runway that runs east to west — was closed around 5:30 a.m. Saturday, said airport operations officer John Stocker. The runway was cleared and open by about 2 p.m. Saturday, said airport operations duty officer Bev Sinnott.

Stocker said the airport redirected other aircraft to a different runway during the closure.

"My understanding, from the air traffic control folks, is that we haven't had any slowdowns," he said.