Page 13 - aua traveller july 17

CREWS RECOVER BODIES GROUND search crews recovered two bodies from the wreckage of a small
FROM 2 WASHINGTON
STATE PLANE CRASHES airplane that crashed into a north-central Washington state mountainside last
weekend, forcing a teenager who survived the impact to hike her way off a
ARUBA TRAVELLER - Friday, July 17 2015 rugged slope to safety.
Deputies and volunteers who reached the wreckage found it burned out and
smoldering.

The two victims haven’t been formally identified, but 16-year-old survivor
Autumn Veatch has said her step-grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman
of Marion, Montana, were killed in the crash.
The plane, piloted by Leland Bowman, was bringing Veatch home from a
Montana visit.

The bodies were recovered Wednesday. Officials said the coroner will make
a formal identification.
A National Transportation Safety Board team was expected to arrive Thursday
to investigate.

The teen was released from a hospital Tuesday. She provided searchers with
the clues they needed to find the wreck.
Also Wednesday, a different set of searchers located the wreckage of a small
plane from Minnesota that crashed in northern Washington state with two
aboard. Two bodies were recovered from that wreckage, a sheriff said.
That plane’s tail registration number matches that of an aircraft reported
missing from Minnesota, Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said. A man and
woman from Kabetogama, Minnesota, were reportedly aboard the plane,
which is believed to have crashed Saturday on its way to Washington’s San
Juan Islands. It was reported missing Tuesday after relatives couldn’t reach
the people on board.

There was no evidence the two flights were related, said Barbara LaBoe, a
Washington state Transportation Department spokeswoman.
Veatch arrived home in Bellingham late Tuesday night. Family friends had
gathered in anticipation of a happy homecoming, bringing balloons and flow-
ers to the apartment of her 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.”

“It’s astonishing that she could do this,” Shockey added later.
Bruised by the impact, singed by the fire, fearing an explosion and knowing
she couldn’t help her step-grandparents, Autumn Veatch headed down the
steep slope, following a creek to a river.
She spent a night on a sand bar and sipped small amounts of water, worrying
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 tiny Mazama, near
the east entrance of North Cascades National Park.
Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said the Beechcraft A-35 was flying
over north-central Washington on its way from Kalispell, Montana, to Lynden,
Washington, when it entered a cloud bank. Then the clouds suddenly parted,
and from her seat behind the cockpit, Veatch could see the mountain and trees
ahead. Leland Bowman tried to pull up - to no avail.
They struck the trees and the plane plummeted to the ground and caught fire.

13INTERNATIONAL