Edward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.com
MEADOW LAKES — A Wasilla man walked away unharmed after his Taylorcraft airplane got caught in a sudden crosswind on take off, causing the plane to strike the trees and become lodged in a stand of birch about 50 feet off the ground Sunday afternoon.
Alaska State Troopers were called to respond about 3 p.m., May 4 to a home off of Meadow Lakes Drive near Tulakes Road.
They say investigation determined that Edward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla, was the pilot and he was still in the plane, suspended in the trees in a stand of trees bordering the grass runway.
Emergency services crews responded along with troopers, but in the end it was a Matanuska Electric Association boom truck and a pair of linemen who navigated the bucket up to Merren.
After attaching Merren to a safety harness, he made his way out of the plane and into the adjacent bucket. A few minutes later, he was safely on the ground. Troopers say he was not injured in the unusual landing.
They say the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and will complete its own investigation.
Central Mat-Su Chief James Steele said the soft tree landing with the happy ending was a first for him.
“It’s the first one I’ve gone to and the pilot was alive,” he said. “This was a good outcome.”
Steele said credit goes to the MEA linemen who brought Merren down to earth unharmed.
But MEA’s big four-wheel drive boom truck wouldn’t have reached the scene without assistance from Walter Pinnow and his Hagglunds tracked vehicle.
Pat Miller, who lives along the runway, said she thought the yellow and blue plane sounded strange, and then it crashed. She said it sounded like someone had a big weed eater going, but another neighbor said it was more like a load of gravel being dumped.
Miller and her neighbors Heidi and Eric O’Brien sat in chairs in her driveway and watched the rescue unfold with their dogs and the O’Brien’s 3-month-old daughter, Patton.
Miller said Merren tried to exit the plane once, but decided to wait for help.
“He’s up there sitting very, very still,” she said.
Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.
Edward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.comEdward T. Merren, 58, of Wasilla told Alaska State Troopers a cross wind caught his Taylorcraft airplane on take off Sunday and popped him down into a stand of birch trees next to the runway off of Meadow Lakes Drive. Matanuska Electric Association linemen used a boom truck to reach MerrenÕs perch 50-feet up and bring him back down to the safety about three hours later. He was unhurt in the incident. HEATHER A. RESZ/Frontiersman.com
