A 16-year-old girl in Washington state is bruised and dehydrated but very much alive after surviving a plane crash and a long trek through what authorities describe as some of the state's most rugged terrain. Autumn Veatch was on a small plane with her step-grandparents that crashed after departing Kalispell, Mont., on Saturday afternoon, the Bellingham Herald reports. There was no sign of the plane or its occupants until a motorist found Veatch on State Route 20 yesterday afternoon and took her to a general store, where employees called authorities, the AP reports. She was hospitalized with minor injuries.
Her father tells the Herald that after the plane crashed into a mountain, it caught fire and she was unable to get her step-grandparents out. She spent about a day near the plane waiting for rescue before following a stream and then a trail out of the woods, her father says. Friends say both father and daughter are completely overwhelmed. "She did joke that it was a good thing she'd watched all those Survivor shows that she didn't like, but her dad made her watch anyway," a family friend tells the Seattle Times. Authorities are still searching for the missing Beech A-35. (In Colombia last month, a mother and baby survived four days in the jungle after a plane crash.)
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