Alaska Man Monday - Airplanes, Locker Rooms, and Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight

This week we have some great Alaska news, some of which even went national – and that doesn’t happen all that often! We have Alaska Man (yes, man, and you’ll see why I specify that in a moment) adventures from planes to locker rooms to altercations with Alaska cops, who, like most Alaskans, don’t stand for much nonsense.

Enjoy!

Small airplane crashes in Houston. No, not that Houston, Alaska’s Houston. This is, I’ve gotta say, a very Alaskan story.

The fire chief of Houston is commending the pilot of a small plane that crashed Thursday near a subdivision for intentionally avoiding homes.
The Stinson 108 aircraft crashed at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday near the Dilley Estates subdivision, Houston Fire Chief Christian Hartley said. The pilot and a passenger suffered minor injuries.
According to an Accident and Incident Notification posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website, the aircraft crashed on departure after experiencing “engine issues.” It is unclear where the plane — which was equipped with skis — took off from. The site of the crash was on private property near a home at the end of Backhaus Street.

Here’s the fun part: Immediately following the crack-up, locals showed up on ATVs and snow machines (people in the lower 48 call those snowmobiles) to see if they could help. There is still a lot of that old frontier, “We take care of our own” attitude among us folks who live out in the Alaska woods, and that was sure on display here.

Multiple people saw the plane going down and immediately went to the scene on snowmachines and ATVs, according to Hartley.
“It’s not just the residents of Houston,” Hartley said. “Houston is just like real Alaska. If you want to know where the real Alaskans are, they’re the people out there running to help others that need help. They see something that needs fixed, they just focus on fixing it. They don’t wait for someone else to come. They’re there. They’re going to fix it and all of those residents in that subdivision came down to help as much as they could and anyway they could. It just says a lot about the Alaska spirit.”

That’s most of Alaska, at least. In Fairbanks, however, we saw something that isn’t so usual here in the Great Land – although, obviously, we have our share of nuts, too.

Alaska man in women’s locker room sparks backlash. That’s something of an understatement, and this has gone way past Alaska.

An Alaskan woman had her Planet Fitness membership revoked after she took a photo of a "man with a penis" at one of the gym’s women’s locker rooms earlier this week.
The incident occurred at the Fairbanks location. A woman recorded herself speaking about the ordeal when she said a person identifying as "queer LBG" was shaving in the female locker room.
Planet Fitness confirmed to Fox News Digital that the woman violated policy regarding taking photos and/or videos in the locker room, resulting in the loss of her membership.

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Ok, so, maybe she was remiss about taking the guy’s photo, especially if there are rules about taking photos in the locker room – and really, it seems like there should be.

But there should also be rules against dudes dressing and undressing in women’s locker rooms, too! This story has gone national, and one would suspect that it ain’t over yet.

Wasilla Man brings a knife to a gunfight – with cops – and finds out that Alaska cops can shoot.

Alaskans are no strangers to guns. As I regularly point out, here in the Valley, even the hippies have guns and know how to use them. So that makes it something of a surprise when this Alaska Man seemed to think the cops were just kidding around when he pulled a knife on them.

Oh, he’s not dead. But one has to wonder if he understands just how lucky he is to still be breathing.

Troopers were called to a Wasilla home early on Feb. 28 because 25-year-old Victor Jack and a relative had been fighting, troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said. The two men lived in separate residences on the same street and the fight was sparked by prior issues between them, McDaniel said.
One of the men was outside the house when Trooper Toma Caldarea arrived, troopers said. The man was detained in a patrol vehicle, troopers said.
Jack emerged from the home brandishing a knife and continued to approach the trooper despite repeated commands to drop the weapon, troopers said. Caldarea shot Jack, they said. Multiple troopers arrived at the home just after the shooting and Jack was brought to a hospital with serious injuries, according to troopers.

There’s an old saying here that applies, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have to repeat it for you.

We’re entering a quiet time of year here in the Great Land. It’s what folks call a “shoulder” season; the winter sports are wrapped up, with the Iditarod, the Iron Dog, and the Winter Games behind us, and it will be a while before the summer tourist season starts. But I’m confident that there will be plenty of Alaska Man shenanigans to report on regardless.

Oh, and enjoy this bonus moose, who was filmed last week eating the black ash trees I've been trying to grow behind our office. Jerk.

Tune in next week for our next exciting episode.