I was on the last airplane out of Anchorage International Airport after the eruption of Mt. Redoubt in 1989. Just as we were about to board the volcano erupted, they said we had about 30 minutes to get on the plane and takeoff before the airport was closed. We just barely made it. An unfortunate
KLM 747 flew right thru the ash cloud, lost all four engines and was not able to get them back til about 5k feet. We saw it when we got back, it looked like they had sandblasted it.
I also fondly remember watching the ash cloud head our way from the Mt Spur, and the shovelling the ash the next day off the driveway with snow shovels.