Panama Crash Survivior Leaves Hospital

A U.S. girl who was the sole survivor of a plane crash in Panama was released from a hospital Sunday but will remain with her parents in the Central American country for a few days and possibly meet some of her rescuers.

Francesca Lewis, 12, her face still bruised, smiled as her sister pushed her wheelchair to a waiting car Sunday.

"She still has lots of aches and pains and is trying to come to grips with the tragedy," her father, Kirk Lewis, said outside the hospital in David, where the girl was treated for hypothermia and multiple traumas.

Francesca was plucked Tuesday from the plane's wreckage in Panama's remote western mountains. Killed in the crash were Francesca's friend Talia Klein, 13; Klein's father, Michael Klein, 37, a prominent businessman from Santa Barbara, California; and Panamanian pilot Edwin Lasso, 23.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with their Cessna 172 two days earlier after it departed from Islas Secas, off Panama's Pacific coast, for the Chiriqui volcano about 270 miles west of Panama City.

The family plans to rest in Panama for a few days and possibly meet some of Francesca's rescuers before returning to their home in Santa Barbara later this week, Lewis said.

"She would like to meet the people who took part in the rescue," Lewis said.

Two Panamanian brothers who helped rescue Francesca said last week they're hoping for a U.S. work visa as a reward, not money. Kim Klein, Michael's Klein ex-wife and Talia's mother, offered a $25,000 reward to anyone who located the aircraft.