Wreckage Spotted in Washington State in Search for Missing Plane

— -- Crews searching for a missing plane in Washington state located wreckage in the area where a teen survivor emerged, the state Department of Transportation said.

Aerial searchers spotted the wreckage Tuesday but were not able to reach the heavily wooded site before nightfall, authorities said, and the search for the plane will resume this morning.

At this point, no identification has been made of the plane or the two missing occupants.

A survivor from the crash, Autumn Veatch, 16, was released Tuesday evening from Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster. She had emerged from the woods in Mazama, Washington, Monday, two days after the plane took off from Kalispell, Montana.

Veatch was on the plane with her step-grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman of Marion, Montana.

At this point, no identification has been made of the plane or the two missing occupants.

In Veatch’s hometown of Bellingham, Washington, family friends gathered in anticipation of her homecoming, bringing balloons and flowers to the apartment of the teen's father, David Veatch.

"We just want to show her and her family that we care and we love her," said one friend, Amber Shockey. She added that Veatch had said "she was happy to be coming home."

The teen left the burning wreckage of the small plane and did what she could: She headed down the steep slope, following a creek to a river. She spent a night on a sand bar, where she felt safer. She drank small amounts of the flowing water but worried she might get sick if she drank more.

She followed the river to a trail, and the trail to a highway. Two men driving by stopped and picked her up Monday afternoon, bringing her – about two full days after the crash – to the safety of a general store in Mazama, a tiny town in north-central Washington, near the east entrance of North Cascades National Park.

"We crashed, and I was the only one that made it out," she told a 911 operator, after a store employee called for her. "I have a lot of burns on my hands, and I'm kind of covered in bruises and scratches and stuff."

Later she managed to joke from her hospital bed about how it was a good thing her dad made her watch the television show "Survivor."

To find out more, you can visit the family's website: http://www.gofundme.com/ze2dgk


The Associated Press contributed to this report.