By Sherrie Chen
Sailor Gutzler, the seven-year-old plane crash survivor, journeyed at night covering three-quarters of a mile for help.
Larry Wilkins who offered to help her said, ”She told me that her mom and dad were dead and she had been in a plane crash.”
The plane named Piper PA-34 which left Key West, Florida on Friday, January 2, planned to Mount Vernon, Illinois, went down on the evening in western Kentucky.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen explained that air traffic controllers “lost contact with a Piper PA-34 aircraft … shortly after the pilot reported engine problems and (said) that he was diverting to the Kentucky Dam State (Park) Airport.”
About what caused the crash, Two National Transportation Safety Board members who left Washington on Saturday would join FAA investigators there trying to figure out the reason.
The Police identified the survivor’s parents as Marty Gutzler, 48 and Kimberly Gutzler, 46
The little girl met a situation that all her relatives were dead—counted her 9-year-old sister Piper Gutzler and 14-year-old cousin Sierra Wilder, and was barefoot except for one sock. More sadly, her clothes were definitely not for Kentucky’s freezing weather since the family planned for Florida with all these shorts and no coat.She was also seriously injured with quivered lips, bloody nose, and her arms and legs scratched up.Her way asking for help turned to a very hard one mired with fallen trees, creeks, ditches and blackberry briars.
After Wilkins called 911,the State Police arrived in about 10 minutes. Sgt. Dean Patterson said the girl was taken to a local hospital with injuries but luckily without life-threatening.
“When I saw … what appeared to be a 7-year-old child that had walked through this dense forest and through some really tough terrain and some awfully poor conditions tonight and survived this,” Wilkins said, “it’s just really a miracle.”
