A Cessna 208 carrying eight people made a harrowing landing Friday afternoon at Merrill Field Airport, dodging busy rush-hour traffic near the start of the Glenn Highway, and crashing through the airport’s perimeter fence before finally coming to a stop in a vacant field.
The incident occurred just before 4 pm, prompting an immediate dispatch of Anchorage Fire Department and Anchorage Police. However, many emergency crews were cleared before they even arrived on scene, the fire department reported, as it quickly became clear that no one on board had sustained serious injuries.
The aircraft is registered to Hinterland Holdings LLC, an Anchorage-based company that owns Alaska Air Transit, a regional charter service operating in Alaska since the 1990s and owned by Alaskans. The company specializes in passenger charter and cargo service across the state…