Sole survivor of plane crash was 'certain she would die' as she explains how she hiked two days to safety

A sole survivor of a plane crash was forced to fend for herself and survive in the mountains at the age of 16.

Autumn Veatch, who was just 16-years-old at the time, was sure she would die after a horrific plane crash. But somehow, the teenager was able to reach safety.

Veatch was travelling on a small plane from Montana with her grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, when the aircraft crashed into a mountainside in north-central Washington State back in 2015.

After somehow surviving the impact, Veatch hiked through the mountains for a full two days before she was finally rescued.

Speaking to CNN at the time, Autumn recalled what it was like that exact moment the aircraft went down.

"We completely lost sight of what was going on at all [...] We couldn’t see a single thing, it was all white, and GPS wasn’t really working." she said.

Autumn recalled she was 'freaking out really bad' before adding: "It was all white and then it was all trees and then it was all fire.

"And, I mean, I was kind of hunched down so [...] the impact itself didn't really hurt me, but fire did."

Autumn said her 'immediate response' was to help her grandparents who were 'still alive' at the time.

ABC News

"They were alive, they were both screaming," she continued. "There was no way I could get to grandma because she was on the far side and there was nothing I could do, but I assumed that if I got grandpa out first then maybe she would come out.

"I was trying to pull them out and I just couldn’t do it. There was too much fire and I’m a small person."

"I was certain I was gonna die," Autumn continued.

"The second day I was living outside, I tried to sleep the morning after. I was certain I would die of hypothermia because I was freezing."

CNN

"My instinct was to go downhill just so I started going downhill. I mean, I was obviously distressed, crying and really scared to be alone in the middle of absolutely nowhere."

Autumn also remembered the 'survivor shows' she used to watch with her dad when she was younger.

She said: "I always remembered going downhill and finding bodies of water, because like, water always leads to civilisation.

It took two days for Autumn to make it to the nearest highway, which was close to the small town of Mazama.

Thankfully, two men later found her in a carpark and they drove her to Mazama, where she was able to call 911.

Topics: News, US News

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.