Investigators Say Girl Who Survived Crash Could Help Determine Cause
Salvage workers bring out part of a Piper PA-34's fuselage, wing and landing gear from a crash site Sunday in Kuttawa, Ky. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the crash site Sunday in which 7-year-old Sailor Gutzler (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Federal investigators are working to determine the cause of a plane crash in western Kentucky that killed four people from Illinois but left a 7-year-old survivor.
The remains of the Piper PA-34 plane are being moved to a location where officials with the National Transportation Safety Board can inspect the wreckage. A preliminary report on the crash is expected in about 10 days.
NTSB investigator Heidi Moats says the child who survived the crash, Sailor Gutzler, is ``one remarkable young lady.'' The girl freed herself from the wreckage and went for help.
Bleeding and dressed in a short-sleeved shirt, she walked three-quarters of a mile in near-freezing temperatures through thick briar patches and woods and waded through a creek before reaching the nearest house.
Moats says the girl might able to help investigators determine what caused the crash that killed her parents, a sister and a cousin. All were from the southern Illinois town of Nashville.