Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Amazing survival story

Some of you may have seen or heard about this. Thought I would post it.

http://www.khq.com/story/29530533/update-wreckage-believed-to-be-missing-montana-plane-found

The interesting part of the story is had she taken any other route than the one she did she probably would have not made it out.

Listened to an interview with the Okanogan sheriff and he told her story. When they hit the side of the mountain the plane exploded and burned. Once she realized she was the only survivor she looked around assessing where she was. She stated that she and her dad watch some of those survivor shows and kind of new that she needed to try and get out of there. Started following a small stream down hill and she said the stream kept getting bigger giving her encouragement. Spent one night on a sandy beach along side the stream because she knew to stay away from the brush. Got up the next day at daylight and continued down stream until she came to a foot bridge and the highway. Had she gone any other direction than the one she did it would have taken her deeper into the wilderness. Who says there is no God looking after his children?

Usually it's best to stay put but in those mountains, many downed planes are never found. It's some of the ruggedest stuff in the US and the trees are so thick that a plane will just disappear. It's a jungle.

She apparently has a mental disability, though. This quote is from the article:
"Her condition has not changed, but her father said the first thing she wanted was some food from McDonalds."
Anyone who actually wants that garbage they call food at McDonalds can't have all their screws tight.

You are truly an inspirational 'Christian'. You've had a screw loose for as long as you've been on the fire.

i think after what she has been though, she can ask for whatever makes her feel better.

very lucky girl indeed.........

Good grief. Why anyone would even joke about that is puzzling.

Rhabdomialaysis and burns on her hands and she walked out of a place that the searchers still haven't gotten to. Not to mention the state her head must have been in, being in a crash and seeing her relatives die.

That is like the title of the thread, amazing. She is an amazing young woman.

Agreed^^^^^ That was a pretty f-ed up thing to say.


Stupid commentary aside,,, they should have put this gal on "Alone".
She's got more balls and brains than most of the idiots on there.

Jay-Zus. Good for her for walking out, but what a clusterphuqk of bad pilotage!!!

"they lost visual contact with the terrain..." You might get away with that for a few minutes over flat country as you maneuver back into VFR conditions, but in mountain flying this is a strict no-go. And it's not like clouds can suddenly and unavoidably appear.

Oh, well. Kid survived. Good for her.

Oh, and it's spelled "rhabdomyolysis". Muscle breaks down due to trauma and myoglobin is released from cells into the bloodstream. Myoglobin is a huge molecule, and it clogs up the kidney's filtration system.

Indeed. I've spent some time up in that country deer hunting and trout fishing. It's really the best part of Washington IMO but it's some rough country and, as pointed out, go the wrong direction and your next stop is a lot of nothing.

Good for her keeping a clear head.

Pugs,

Looks like they were flying a Bonanza aka "fork tailed doctor killer". Galland's favorite civilian plane, btw. I used the forked tailed doctor killer line on him and he said "Ja, we call them the same thing in German." Said it was the closest thing to simulating the performance charactists of a WW II fighter.

Brave girl. Happy she survived the ordeal.

Movie deal in her future.

Google North Cascades National Park and look at the images. With elevations >9000 feet it's serious mountain flying. While a Bonanza is considered "high performance" from a light civil point of view, with three people aboard at that elevation it's not exactly sporty.

The NTSB report will take a while and while it's easy to throw stones I can easily see how this happens and it isn't the first CFIT nor will it be the last.

While not likely a factor in this case, icing in the area is as bad as anyplace in the world. Warm water uplifted off the Pacific and mountain slopes created ideal conditions. Aircraft manufacturers go their to test fly in icing it's so predictable. I've seen ice build in seconds on an airframe and it was bad enough in a jet to make me declare an emergency for a rapid descent. A light civil would be lost quickly even with anti-ice.

I thought that looked strange, I cut and pasted it out of the article. Sounds nasty.

Been all over the news here.

Girl is lucky, to say the least. Hope they find the grandparents.

That young lady is both lucky and tough, she made the right call walking out. If she would have stayed with the wreckage she probably wouldn't have made it. The grandparents lived in the next little town up the road from me.

Yeah, I should probably wait for the NTSB report, but that quote from the news story made me roll my eyes...

I used to backpack and guide in the front range of the Rockies between Calgary and Banff. A lot of pilots like to fly up to Banff for a day excursion, and one of the favored routes is up the Ghost River valley, over Lake Minnewanka, and then down into the Bow valley to Banff. Only problem is that the pass into Minnewanka looks just like a blind canyon a few miles south. There used to be regular crashes up that valley, and sometimes the plane would be lost in the timber for months or even years. I happened across one of those crashes while backpacking up to a rock climb in '73. Nasty business.

I'm scheduled to take a mountain flying course this fall up in Santa Fe and I've been working through the prerequisite readings list. As you say, getting into the mountains in a light plane can get awful sporty awful quick, especially in canyons.

I strongly suspect that the grandparents who burned up in the fricking plane might say that!

It's amazing she survived the crash. Walking out was pretty much common sense, and she did not have to endure any hardships from the elements. Glad she survived, but think it was mostly luck on her part. Those north Cascades are indeed rugged and quite extensive. With a 2 day hike, however, she was obviously not that far in.

I'll bet you spend a little time over here: https://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum If you don't you should. Good people and even better information.