Teenage Girl Survives Plane Crash, Two Days in Woods

A teenage girl is home safe and sound after a harrowing ordeal in which she survived a plane crash and two days in the woods without supplies.

The Guardian reports that 16-year-old Autumn Veatch was flying in a plane piloted by her step-grandfather Leland Bowman. Her step-grandmother Sharon Bowman was also in the plane. Autumn was a resident of Washington state, where the plane crashed, and the Bowmans were residents of Montana, where they were returning from at the time of the accident. The Bowman's have not been officially identified as victims of the crash, but it is believed they perished in the incident.

The plane crashed in an area so densely packed with trees and foliage that searchers have not been able reach the plane yet, having only discovered the plane around the same time Autumn made it out of the woods.

After short stint in a hospital after she was rescued, Autumn returned to her home in the Seattle suburb of Bellingham where she was greeted by friends in families relieved and ecstatic to have her back in good health.

After following a creek to a river, she found a highway and was eventually picked up by two good Samaritans who dropped her off at a local general store where the clerk called 911. She suffered scrapes, bruises, and some burns on her hands as a result of the crash.

She didn't eat while lost in the woods, but did drink some water from the aforementioned creek.

Autumn said the crash happened because they were flying through clouds, and when the clouds broke, they were suddenly in front of a mountain, and although Leland tried to bring the plane to a higher altitude, he couldn't do it in time.