A fine example of Alaskans at their very best

How many times has there been an accident scene where everyone is standing around gawking, looking, but not getting involved? Yesterday a few Alaskans showed how it should be done. A small airplane, a Cessna 206, crashed into a building on a busy city street right at the beginning of rush hour. Not one, but 25 regular old people jumped up and ran to the rescue. They pulled four people from the flaming wreckage saving their lives. The story is here. Take a look at the photo gallery. In one picture you will see half a dozen people lifting an airplane wing while others reach into the cabin to pull the people out. There are flames coming from the airplane and keep in mind, that wing holds a full fuel tank. (The airplane was taking off, believed to be leaving Anchorage for Western Alaska.) Unfortunately one four year old child died in the flames. I can only imagine the people who saved the other four, thinking, wondering, wishing they could have reached that child somehow but police said the flames became too intense. The comments at the end of the story are interesting, too, many of them from family and friends of the people who were in the airplane. It was an amazing display, these people just passing by but stopping and rushing to the aid of people trapped in a burning airplane and saving lives, the kind of thing you expect from an Alaskan but also something to appreciate and never, ever, take for granted.