Girl Survives Plane Crash in Wilderness

**TXyakr** · 07-14-2015, 11:17 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/13...-sheriff-says/

This 16 year old girl appears to have done everything right after she survived a tragic plane crash in a very remote part of the NW. She stayed at the crash site for one day, hoping it would be found, then moved down slope, found a stream, followed it to a trail, followed it down slope to a road, flagged down a car. Following small to large streams then to roads is what my parents taught me when we flew in small bush planes when I was very young.

Personally I keep a small First Aid Kit with me almost all the time even when in a big city, but a larger one when in a remote wilderness area. Just a small roll of gauze, tape and antiseptic can be used for many things: abrasion over a large area, cut, nose bleed, fire tinder, etc etc. I hope she had FAK, plus mylar emergency blanket or something better like sleep bag and tarp.

Fox report said she "wandered" this is not accurate IMO, she followed a plan it seems to me and made her way to civilization in a very logical way. Very impressive considering the trauma she went through.

**hunter63** · 07-14-2015, 11:22 PM

Just watched it....I agree she did it right, and I glad to hear good news for a change.

**Solar Geek** · 07-15-2015, 01:07 AM

Watched it on NBC tonight. Hooray for her and hope she continues to do well.

**kyratshooter** · 07-21-2015, 11:21 AM

I watched an hour long interview with this young lady last night on CNN.

I would like to say she is a truly exceptional person, but she is not.

She is an average kid of the modern world with all the normal problems of a 16 year old in modern society.

She is a bit shy and unimpressive except that she seems to have one special trait. She gets ticked off and then she does something about it!

One of the things I noted was that she realized that her survival instincts did not kick in until she got really mad.

Her plane crashed, she watched both her grandparents die, she was severely burned, no food, no water, did not know where she was, no knife, no way to make fire, and on the first night she hid in a hole in the ground, nearly freezing, and came to the conclusion that "this was not cool!"

Then she got a little mad and her resources kicked in. One of the things she liked to do when she was younger was watch the "survival shows" on TV with her Dad. What was the most important thing she came away from the TV with? Go down hill, follow water to civilization. (I think that was always a Less Stroud thing)

She did that for two days, found water, followed it, found a hiking trail (a bridge over the water) which led to a road.

She said she sat on the roadside for hours before anyone would stop. After all that, and in today's modern cell phone world, no one even called the police to report a battered, dirty, ragged girl that had collapsed on the roadside.

One of the results of the experience, and I am sure there will be many more she lives with forever, was that she came home determined to get rid of some of the "teenaged negativity" in her life. No time left for sulking, depression, pouting and teen aged fits.

Now when school starts in August, and the English teacher says to write a report on what you did this summer.....

**hunter63** · 07-21-2015, 11:40 AM

That would have been a good interview to watch.....

That's a tough kid.

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She has learned a life lesson, the hard way.....but how many will never learn it.

**kyratshooter** · 07-21-2015, 12:22 PM

I almost wanted to cry for her when she talked about being curled up in a hole in the ground freezing and shivering, in shock, knowing she was facing death.

Then I wanted to laugh when in the next sentence she said, "and I laid there and thought 'this is really not cool!"

It reminded me of my daughter at the same age so much I had to laugh, not at the situation, but at the uniform response of the teenage goth mind.

I'm facing death, three days ago I was suicidal and my parents were about to have me committed but now I am facing real death, outside my own control, and it is not cool! Life is not that bad and I want to hang onto it.

We expect too little from our teenagers. 150 years ago this 16 year old girl would have already been married for a couple of years and would have a toddler or two under foot.

Carson, Bridger, Boone and a host of others walked into the forest at 13-14 and lived to be old men.

**TXyakr** · 07-21-2015, 01:53 PM

Good review of the CNN interview Kyratshooter, I am disappointed I missed it. I expected her to spend more time in counseling before doing a long interview, major trauma, so I would not judge the way she expressed herself. I wondered if the fire from the crash destroyed or prevented her from retrieving any First Aid Kit or fabric she could use as insulation for the cold night temperatures or even a knife. All I had heard was the basics.

I have worked with some teens that are going thru some issues and don't communicate well with adults or even other kids their own age. They will sit in the same room as other kids and text in 144 word or much shorter bursts. A child psychologist friend of mine (lives in NZ) and one local said what I have noticed with my 2 teens is the same trend all over the world, especially among those with more $. They spend less time face to face with each other and more screen time which leads to more depression and anxiety. The number that want to go to summer and sports camps or just go to a friends house to hang out is dropping dramatically every summer.

Hopefully this girl, Autumn is her name I believe? will be able to speak to some kids about these issues and they will listen because she has an interesting story. She will value the talks and time spent with her adopted grandparents far more than text messages to other kids.

I asked some 14 year old kids at an outdoor class if they carried pocket knives a few weeks ago and got interesting answers. I did not tell them, but when I was 9 years old my friends and I carried 24" machetes around all summer, useful for many things, also hunting knives. When I pulled out a little Mora to cut up some snack to share I asked them if they knew how to play "chicken" with a hunting knife, probably should not have said that. (Basically if it sticks in your foot you win the knife sort of, win the game anyway, may need a butterfly bandaid or 2. More fun than stupid video games on phones, IMO.) Machetes and large hunting knives would be illegal in many parts of the USA. Even a knife over 5.5" is illegal in Texas leaving kids defenseless and similar or worse in some other states/cities etc.:
https://thefiringline.com/library/blades/knifelaws.html

Kids are kept so "safe" they are endanger of becoming vegetables.