A teenager whose plane disappeared over the weekend in
Washington state was found alive and well on Monday, authorities said.
Autumn Veatch,
16, was flying with her grandparents Saturday in a small, private plane. The
aircraft left Montana, but never arrived where it was headed -- Lynden,
Washington.
"Autumn did
not tell us the condition of her grandparents, but it doesn't sound good. It
doesn't sound like they made it," Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers
told CNN.
He recounted the
teen's story of survival.
"Autumn
said they flew out of the clouds, and then flew into the side of a mountain.
She was able to get out, and she spent the night by a river before hiking to
the highway, where she was rescued," Rogers said.
She was picked
up and taken to a local store in Mazama, Washington.
The girl was then taken to Three Rivers Hospital in nearby Brewster,
and her father, David Veatch, was on his way to pick her up, according to the
sheriff.
Autumn was
dehydrated and developed rhabdomyolysis, a muscle disorder, during her ordeal,
but suffered no life threatening injuries, said Scott Graham, CEO of Three
Rivers Hospital.
David Veatch
said that his daughter tried to help her grandparents -- Leland and Sharon
Bowman -- out of the plane, but couldn't. She waited for rescuers near the
crash site for about a day, crying, the newspaper reported David Veatch said.
Crews are still
looking for the plane and the girl's grandparents. The search is being
complicated by the mountainous terrain.
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