Washington:
A 16-year-old girl has emerged as a 'superhero' after miraculously surviving a plane crash in a mountainous region in Washington state that is feared to have killed her grandparents.
Autumn Veatch was flying with her grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, on Saturday in a small, private plane when it apparently ran into trouble. The aircraft left Kalispell, Montana, but never arrived in Lynden, Washington.
Two days later, she managed to reach a highway and flag down a passing motorist for help.
"Autumn did not tell us the condition of her grandparents, but it doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound like they made it," CNN quoted Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers as saying.
He recounted the teen's story of survival. "Autumn said they flew out of the clouds, and then flew into the side of a mountain. She was able to get out, and she spent the night by a river before hiking to the highway, where she was rescued," Rogers said.
She was picked up and taken to a local store in Mazama, Washington. The girl was then taken to Three Rivers Hospital in nearby Brewster, and her father, David Veatch, was on his way to pick her up, according to the sheriff.
Rogers said that Autumn's survival was miraculous. "It gets cold up there at night, pretty high elevations, so she survived not only the crash, then going through that. I will just tell you this from all of us here - we are just impressed with her, she's like a kind of superhero."
Autumn was dehydrated and developed rhabdomyolysis, a muscle disorder, during her ordeal, but suffered no life-threatening injuries, said Scott Graham, chief executive of Three Rivers Hospital.
David Veatch told the Bellingham Herald that Autumn tried to help her grandparents out of the plane, but could not. She waited for rescuers near the crash site for about a day, crying, the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Crews are still looking for the plane and the girl's grandparents. The search is being complicated by the mountainous terrain.
Autumn Veatch was flying with her grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, on Saturday in a small, private plane when it apparently ran into trouble. The aircraft left Kalispell, Montana, but never arrived in Lynden, Washington.
Two days later, she managed to reach a highway and flag down a passing motorist for help.
"Autumn did not tell us the condition of her grandparents, but it doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound like they made it," CNN quoted Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers as saying.
He recounted the teen's story of survival. "Autumn said they flew out of the clouds, and then flew into the side of a mountain. She was able to get out, and she spent the night by a river before hiking to the highway, where she was rescued," Rogers said.
She was picked up and taken to a local store in Mazama, Washington. The girl was then taken to Three Rivers Hospital in nearby Brewster, and her father, David Veatch, was on his way to pick her up, according to the sheriff.
Rogers said that Autumn's survival was miraculous. "It gets cold up there at night, pretty high elevations, so she survived not only the crash, then going through that. I will just tell you this from all of us here - we are just impressed with her, she's like a kind of superhero."
Autumn was dehydrated and developed rhabdomyolysis, a muscle disorder, during her ordeal, but suffered no life-threatening injuries, said Scott Graham, chief executive of Three Rivers Hospital.
David Veatch told the Bellingham Herald that Autumn tried to help her grandparents out of the plane, but could not. She waited for rescuers near the crash site for about a day, crying, the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Crews are still looking for the plane and the girl's grandparents. The search is being complicated by the mountainous terrain.
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