Seven Year Old Girl Uses Survival Skills

[crashdive123]

There was a recent article about a tragic plane crash. A little seven year old girl used the survival skills taught to her by her father to get out and find help. I think she did better than many adults might have.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...skills-n279016

[MrFixIt]

Wow, that is terrible. Sounds like she is ok for now, but what about later.

[Rick]

I read that. I thought it was pretty miraculous she survived and then her actions were just as incredible given her age and the location of the crash. The upside of being in most of the Continental U.S. is if you stumble in any direction you will usually find a house or a road or both.

[Tokwan]

Such a brave little girl....most adults would not be such.

[Old GI]

Truly a blessed young lady. But, Fix is right; the really bad stuff may be in her future.

[hunter63]

Saw that on the news......Good on her....keeping her head is a real bad situation.
Good news that she survived, but feel bad that she lost her family.

[Grizz123]

I've been following the story on FOX all weekend, her father did a great job of teaching her survival skills. I love her shirt in the family pic, "you cant stop me"

[Adventure Wolf]

I saw that on the news. I feel bad for the girl. She's orphaned now.

Great sense of survival.

[natertot]

A heck of a girl with a hard life in front of her. Hopefully there is other family that will take her so she won't have to go to the state.

[randyt]

God Bless!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TXyakr]

Remarkable that Sailor G made her way so far in so little time to civilization after surviving such trauma. Equivalent distance for an adult would be 3x or more, not just 3/4 mile. Personally I train barefoot and in sandals often down to about 35F; briars (smilax) and various berries on lower bare legs and between callous pads are rough for just 100 yards in light brush, but that far would be horrible. Beyond just the shock and adrenaline from the terror of the situation her actions show that she possessions an admirable degree of psychological, spiritual and physical strength.

I read and saw on TV various reports of this and it was not clear what her strategy was. As a small child my family traveled hundreds of miles by small plane over remote wilderness and one of the strategies our parents taught was: if the plane was ditched to travel down hill, follow small ditches to creeks in search of rivers that should eventually lead to a road or civilization. But another is to move to a high point look for a light (at night) use stars or sun as part of dead reckoning (while out of view of light in valleys) to head toward it. Or make a fire if possible for warmth and as a signal on or near the high point. All these and other strategies have their pros and cons and depend on the terrain, climate and situation etc.

Other observation is that planes of all sizes travel far more miles without mishap than do surface vehicles by land or water. So children in the backseat of a car or boat should also be instructed in survival especially if traveling on small country roads or private roads. If your vehicle goes into a ditch or creek and the adult is pinned in or more severely injured with no means of electronic communication (dead zone or whatever) the child in the back seat should know how to independently find help if that is the most appropriate course of action.

Somewhat beside the point, but once on a very remote dirt airstrip the small dual engine prop plane I was in stalled before landing, hit hard, blew out a tire and spun around. Thankfully it did not roll and crash but we were 2 hours into the bush from civilization and if there had been any serious injuries an ER would have been very far away. Another time our neighbor had a vulture come thru the windshield of his single engine plane on take off, he managed to circle around and land, no human was harmed. Another man who stayed with us of a few days while fixing the avionics of his plane crashed and died a few days later. Many more stories but cars and boats are still riskier from what I have read because far more precautions are taken with planes.

When I was very small 4-8 y.o. we had the fuselage of a small plane that had crashed stored in our backyard that my friends and I played on. It seemed normal at the time but a bit morbid by today's standards. The government had finished its inspection after the crash and returned it to us. Cool jungle gym as far as us kids were concerned. I don't even remember who had crashed in it or if they survived, but I believer they did survive. Just life in the bush.

Edit: I understand that Sailor G's Aunt and Uncle and her church family will be taking good care of her and but it will still take many years for them to deal with their loss. Impossible to comprehend this deep sorrow but I join with those in wishing them a period of healing and privacy from the media. Most sincere condolences.