# Did You Hear About the 7 Year Old Girl Who Survived A Plane Crash in Kentucky?



## SeaBreeze (Jan 3, 2015)

Her parents were killed in the crash, and she wandered over to someone's home for help.  I feel so sorry for this little one, at least she's alive.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/03/kentucky-plane-crash_n_6409902.html




> KUTTAWA, Ky. (AP) — Bleeding and alone, 7-year-old Sailor Gutzler had just survived a plane crash that killed her family. She walked through about a mile of woods and thick briar patches, wearing only a short-sleeve shirt, shorts and no shoes in near-freezing temperatures when she saw a light in the distance.
> 
> The beacon led her to Larry Wilkins' home, police said, and she knocked on the door. Wilkins answered to find a thin, black-haired girl, whimpering and trembling.
> 
> "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 on 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."


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## Warrigal (Jan 4, 2015)

Poor brave little thing.
Hard to know what to say. 
Everything I can think of sounds very trite.

I just hope that, having been spared now, she lives on to find happiness in her life.
I hope she finds the right angels to guide and guard her, whoever they turn out to be.


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## Kadee (Jan 4, 2015)

The story was on our nightly news, hope she will be OK what a traumatic event for a little girl, and loosing all her close family


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## oldman (Jan 4, 2015)

Then there was Northwest Flight 255 that on takeoff from Detroit never got any lift and slammed into a bridge overpass killing all 147 passengers on-board, with the exception of a 4-year old girl, who was found under a seat. The thinking at that time was that her Mommy quickly stuffed her under the seat. This was another avoidable accident. The pilots were very late and wanted to get out to the runway for takeoff, so they never finished completing their takeoff checklist. (Pilots have checklists for everything.) They did not have the plane's wings configured properly and never knew or realized that they had their wings and ailerons fully retracted.

I used to get criticized by a few passengers when they would be leaving the aircraft at our arrival site for taking so long to get the plane in the air. I never made excuses or told them that I refuse to rush and not do my checklists. True, sometimes I did complete my checklist on the way out to the runway, but I always did my checklist. One time when we turned on our APU, we noticed that it wasn't putting out the necessary voltage to fully start the engines. I turned the plane around and went back to the gate. The delay was an hour and a half. I tried to explain to the passengers what was going on, but one fellow yelled at a Flight Attendant that he was a pilot and that we could have taken off with the APU at half power. Idiot.


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## Butterfly (Jan 4, 2015)

In a million years I would never complain about a pilot being too careful!  After all, my life is in his hands and that's a lot more important than any hurry I'm in.  Some people are just stupid.


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## Sid (Jan 4, 2015)

oldman said:


> Then there was Northwest Flight 255 that on takeoff from Detroit never got any lift and slammed into a bridge overpass killing all 147 passengers on-board, with the exception of a 4-year old girl, who was found under a seat. The thinking at that time was that her Mommy quickly stuffed her under the seat. This was another avoidable accident. The pilots were very late and wanted to get out to the runway for takeoff, so they never finished completing their takeoff checklist. (Pilots have checklists for everything.) They did not have the plane's wings configured properly and never knew or realized that they had their wings and ailerons fully retracted.
> 
> I used to get criticized by a few passengers when they would be leaving the aircraft at our arrival site for taking so long to get the plane in the air. I never made excuses or told them that I refuse to rush and not do my checklists. True, sometimes I did complete my checklist on the way out to the runway, but I always did my checklist. One time when we turned on our APU, we noticed that it wasn't putting out the necessary voltage to fully start the engines. I turned the plane around and went back to the gate. The delay was an hour and a half. I tried to explain to the passengers what was going on, but one fellow yelled at a Flight Attendant that he was a pilot and that we could have taken off with the APU at half power. Idiot.



     If you don't mind my asking why isn't  the checklist completed before the passengers get on the plan?


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## oldman (Jan 5, 2015)

*"If you don't mind my asking why isn't the checklist completed before the passengers get on the plane?"

*Well, let's take a flight that is boarding in the middle or latter part of the day. If I was to be the pilot on a flight from LAX to DEN and it was to depart at 3:00 p.m., I may be on a flight from IAD to LAX and I was to land at 1:30 p.m. After landing that plane, I would complete my log books and other paperwork, plus grab a few minutes of rest and perhaps a sandwich and a Coke and head to the gate to pilot the flight to DEN. Nobody boards the aircraft (passengers) until the flight crew is on-board. If we are a little behind, we would never have the time to complete all of the pre fight checklists before the passengers would begin boarding. Make sense? Pilots have to also wait until the baggage has been completed loading to check to make sure the hold area is secure and the door has been properly closed. Normally, if it is hot outside, I would only start the right engine to have A/C for the passengers and not just air from the ramp. I also like to run my engines up on the way out to the runway to check for any problems with them on my gauges. There are checks for fuel mixture, flaps, oh, jeez, just a lot of checks. We also have pre flight checks for many other items. I think, if my mind serves me correctly, there are 15 checks that need performed before the engines are started and we can be pushed back from the gate, including to make sure that the doors are closed properly and locked. If the passengers had to wait for the pilots to perform all of their checks before boarding, we would have several late flights. More so than now. Granted, not to scare anyone, but we do have a few pilots that feel so comfortable with their plane that they will bypass some of the checks. I can honestly say that I never did. This is what caused the accident in Detroit. Pilots were late leaving and they wanted to do their last leg of the day, so they would get paid and they just rushed and skipped the pre flight check for making sure their flaps and ailerons, along with the trim were all set properly. I would rather lose a few hundred bucks then risk the safety of my passengers. Then, we have in-flight checks, approach checks, landing checks and finally arrival checks. I know this is a short answer, but I hope this answers your question.


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## Lon (Jan 5, 2015)

I tear up every time I hear about this amazing story.


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## Lon (Jan 5, 2015)

*I Can't Help Crying*

When I think about that eight year old  plane crash survivor in Kentucky walking away from her dead parents and seeking help at a near by home. May she have a good and long life.


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## Geezerette (Jan 5, 2015)

Bless you for your empathy. An unimaginable miracle on top of a horrible tragedy. I get teary eyed too.


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## Kitties (Jan 5, 2015)

It's really going to be hard for her. But if she has good other family, she will survive.

Shortly before my mother and stepfather married, my stepfather's brother, his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident coming home from a vacation. Only the son survived. I remember him and I think he was raised by his mother's sister and husband. My mother pretty much isolated my stepfather from his family by and by. But from what I know this kid made a good life for himself. Like me, he'd be in his 50's now. It's got to leave a life long void though and thoughts of 'what if.'


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## Mike (Jan 6, 2015)

A very brave girl to go looking for help in the woods.

There was a similar accident over here last Sunday,
the parents were killed in a light plane crash and their
6 year old son was seriously injured, he was flown by
helicopter ambulance to Southampton General Hospital.

Full story here.

Mike.


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## oakapple (Jan 6, 2015)

So many tragic stories.


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## Mrs. Robinson (Jan 6, 2015)

That story brought me to tears too,Lon. In fact,watching the news stories on this,even the police officer was crying as he talked about it. They say that the dad had taught all the kids survival skills and what to do in case of a crash.Smart man. That probably saved her life.


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