Teen says couple died in plane crash she survived

A sheriff in Washington state says a 16-year-old girl who survived a small-plane crash and then hiked to safety reported that her step-grandparents died in the accident. Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said Tuesday that Autumn Veatch told him Leland and Sharon Bowman of Marion, Montana, died in Saturday’s crash. Searchers planned to resume looking for the wreckage early Tuesday. The girl told Rogers they were flying in the clouds until the sky suddenly opened up to a mountain and they crashed into the trees. Veatch told authorities she stayed at the crash site for a day before hiking down. A motorist picked her up Monday and drove her 30 miles east to a general store, where employees called 911. She had no life-threatening injuries but was dehydrated.

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SEATTLE – A teenage girl who survived a small-plane crash in the craggy, thickly forested mountains of north-central Washington emerged from the wilderness after hiking “for a couple of days” and was picked up by a motorist who drove her to safety, authorities said Monday. But the fate of her two stepgrandparents, who were also on board, remained unclear.

Family members alerted authorities after the Beech A-35 failed to complete its flight from Kalispell, Montana, to Lynden, Washington, on Saturday afternoon. Rescuers narrowed down a search area based on cellphone data and typical flight patterns. But there was no sign of the aircraft or its occupants until Autumn Veatch, 16, followed a trail to state Route 20, near the east entrance to North Cascades National Park.

A motorist picked her up Monday afternoon and drove her 30 miles east to a general store in Mazama, where employees called 911. The Aero Methow Rescue Service sent a paramedic team to check her out before she was taken to a hospital in Brewster for treatment of what appeared to be minor injuries, said Cindy Button, director of services at the organization.

“Our initial information is she sustained no life-threatening injuries and is somewhat dehydrated due to being out in the elements,” said Scott Graham, CEO of Three Rivers Hospital.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said Monday afternoon that the girl had been “walking for a couple of days.” He declined to comment on the status of the other two people aboard the plane.

Serena Lockwood, the manager at the Mazama Store, said the girl and a motorist came in Monday afternoon, saying she had been in a plane crash.

“She was obviously pretty traumatized,” Lockwood said.

Rescuers celebrated Veatch’s survival, but they immediately returned their focus to finding the wreckage, aided by Veatch’s description of the crash site, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Lustick of the Civil Air Patrol. Lustick said he could not confirm any details about the condition of the grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman of Marion, Montana.

“We’re so happy about this,” Lustick said. “I’ve spent 30 years in the Civil Air Patrol and in search-and-rescue. Moments of joy like this can be hard to find.”

Lustick said he had spoken with Veatch’s father, who said his daughter told him the plane crashed and caught fire after flying into a bank of clouds. She remained at the crash site for a day before deciding to hike down, eventually finding a trail and following it to the trailhead on Highway 20.

Five aircraft equipped with special radios for detecting the missing plane’s emergency-locator transmitter searched the mountains Monday, while ground crews focused on areas between Mazama and Rainy Pass, officials said. The planes halted their search for the night by 8 p.m. while a couple of Navy helicopters from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station continued to sweep the area, said Barbara LaBoe, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman.

The crashed plane crossed the Idaho-Washington border about 2:20 p.m. Saturday, but it dropped off the radar near Omak about an hour later, transportation officials said. The last phone signal from one of the plane’s occupants was detected around 3:50 p.m.