A 16-year-old girl who survived a plane crash in Washington State is being hailed as a "miracle child."
Over the weekend, the small private plane on which Autumn Veatch was flying from Kaspell, Montana with her step-grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, met with an accident and never arrived at its destination of Lynden, Washington.
The aircraft — a Beech A-35 — disappeared on the afternoon of Saturday, July 11, prompting Veatch's family members to alert the authorities.
The authorities scouted the search area on the basis of cell phone data as well as flight patterns. However, they were unable to locate the aircraft and its passengers. That was, until the teenager walked her way through the mountainous north-central Washington state "for a couple of days" and made her way to Highway 20.
On Monday, July 13, Autumn was found alive and was rescued by a motorist who drove her to a general store in Mazama, Washington. The store's employees called 911.
The teenager was checked out by paramedics prior to being taken to a hospital for minor injury treatment. While Autumn did not sustain any major injuries, she was dehydrated, owing to being out amid harsh conditions. She is being evaluated at Three Rivers Hospital and has reportedly developed rhabdomyolysis, a muscle disorder.
The fate of the teen's step-grandparents is not known.
"Autumn did not tell us the condition of her grandparents, but it doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound like they made it," revealed Frank Rogers, Okanogan County Sheriff.
The Sheriff also divulged that the aircraft flew into the mountainside before crashing, according to Autumn.
The girl's father, David Veatch, says that Autumn tried to help her grandparents out of the aircraft but was unable to. She also waited for rescuers near the site of the crash for a day.
Search crews are looking for the aircraft as well as the teenager's grandparents. However, owing to the mountainous terrain, the search is getting difficult.
