KUTTAWA, Ky. (AP) – A 7-year-old girl who survived a plane crash in rural Kentucky had trekked about a mile without shoes in near-freezing temperatures in order to find help, a witness told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Bloodied but free of major injuries, the girl knocked on the door of the first home she found – that of Larry Wilkins of Kuttawa, Kentucky. He was stunned when he opened the door Friday evening, only to see a young girl bleeding from various injuries and sobbing.
“I come to the door and there’s a little girl, 7 years old, bloody nose, bloody arms, bloody legs, one sock, no shoes, crying,” Wilkins, 71, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. “She told me that her mom and dad were dead, and she had been in a plane crash, and the plane was upside down.”
Kentucky State Police Sgt. Dean Patterson said Federal Aviation Administration officials have arrived at the scene to try to determine why the small Piper PA-34 crashed as it flew over rural southwestern Kentucky early Friday evening.
The plane had reported engine trouble and lost contact with air traffic controllers shortly before the 5:55 p.m. CST crash, authorities said. About a half hour later, 911 dispatchers received a call from Wilkins, who reported that a girl who had been involved in a plane crash had walked to his home.