Girl survives deadly Kentucky plane crash in "miracle," police say
KUTTAWA, Ky. -- A 7-year-old girl who survived a plane crash in Kentucky that killed her parents and two other family members has been released from the hospital, an official said Saturday.
Kentucky State Police Sgt. Dean Patterson also said Federal Aviation Administration officials have arrived at the scene to try to determine why the small Piper PA-34 crashed as it was flying over in 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, a man called 911 and told dispatchers that a 7-year-old girl had walked to his home in Kuttawa, Kentucky, and said she had been involved in a plane crash.
The girl had walked nearly 1 mile, through thick piles of brush, in temperatures that were less than 40 degrees before reaching the home of 71-year-old Larry Wilkins.
"She had one sock on her feet, and she walked all that distance barefooted," Wilkins told CBS News. "I wouldn't want to go in that woods right now in the dark without any lights whatsoever. I wouldn't want to do it. I know you'd fall. There's no doubt in my mind. She's a brave little girl."
The girl was treated at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, and released early Saturday, Patterson said.
"This girl came out of the wreckage herself and found the closest residence and reported the plane crash," Patterson said. "It's a miracle in a sense that she survived it, but it's tragic that four others didn't."
Patterson said the girl was the daughter of the two adults who died in the crash, Marty Gutzler, 48; and his wife, Kimberly Gutzler, 46. Also killed in the crash were the girl's sister, Piper Gutzler, 9; and a cousin, Sierra Wilder, 14. All were from Nashville, Illinois. The bodies have been recovered and sent to Louisville for autopsies.
On Saturday afternoon, an Illinois law firm released a statement from the family identifying the surviving girl as Sailor Gutzler.
"The Gutzler family mourns the loss of Marty, Kim and Piper Gutzler and Sierra Wilder," lawyer Kent Plotner said in the statement. "We are devastated by this loss but are confident that they rest in God's loving arms. We ask that you respect our privacy at this difficult time. Please pray for us, especially for Sailor Gutzler."
In Nashville, a man stepped outside the family's white, split-level home on Saturday and politely waved off a reporter.
"Not now," he said, his head lowered, before he stepped back inside.
Neighbors said Marty and Kim Gutzler had lifelong roots in the largely rural southern Illinois town about 50 miles east of St. Louis.
Marty ran the furniture store that his father started, and the couple was well-known and well-liked, said neighbor Carla Povolish.
With two basketball hoops in the driveway, the Gutzlers' home was the center of neighborhood fun on a block full of children.
"All the kids in the neighborhood are just so upset about this," she said.
Povolish said the two sisters - the crash's lone survivor and the one who perished - were together constantly.
"That's what's going to be so devastating for the little one," she said.
The FAA said late Friday that the plane had taken off from Tallahassee Regional Airport, Florida, and was bound for Mount Vernon, Illinois. Patterson said the girl who survived indicated the plane had left from Key West, Florida.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board also were expected to get to the scene later Saturday, Patterson said.
The pastor of a church near the crash site said the area was known for rough terrain and that the conditions Friday were wet due to persistent rain.
"That area is very rough and hilly, very heavily forested with mature trees," said the Rev. Dean Weber of the Chestnut Oak United Methodist Church in Kuttawa, Kentucky. "Any plane crash in that area is going to be a severe ordeal."