Plane crashes, pilot leaves

TALKEETNA — A plane crashed at the Talkeetna airport Friday evening, but by the time emergency responders got there, the pilot was nowhere to be found.

“We got there, it was in the trees, the wing on the right side was severely damaged it was leaking fuel. We contained that,” said Talkeetna Fire Chief Ken Farina.

He said he wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but it appeared the plane was landing and that maybe the pilot had overshot a turn.

He said the fuel leak was pretty easy to contain.

“Luckily, there was a big gas can there with a funnel. We put it right there under the wing,” Farina said.

He said he’d heard by Saturday morning that Alaska State Troopers had caught up with the pilot. Troopers hadn’t mentioned the crash in their activity logs.