Teenage girl Autumn Veatch 'walked for days' in forest after plane crash

A teenage girl who survived a small plane crash in a mountainous area near Omak, Washinton walked for days before she emerged from the forest and waved down a passing motorist, revealing her incredible survival tale.

Emergency service workers had been searching for the plane, which was carrying 16-year-old Autumn Veatch and her step-grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, aged 62 and 63, when it took off on Saturday afteoon (local time) in Montana.

The plane, which was being piloted by Leland Bowman, failed to reach its destination in Washington state later that day, and family members alerted police.

Frank Rogers, the Okanogan County Sheriff, said the girl managed to walk to a trailhead, where she was picked up by a motorist and taken to a store in Mazama in Washington State on Monday afteoon.

Rogers said the girl had been "walking for a couple of days," and was being taken to a local hospital, however she appeared to be in stable condition. He would not comment on the status of the other two people aboard the plane.

"We're not going into the status of the grandparents. She was the only one who walked out," he told Associated Press.

"She just said they came out of the clouds, and it [the plane] crashed."

Autumn's father, David Veatch, posted a message on his daughter's Facebook page soon after the news emerged, saying: "Autumn is ok!!"

Henry Clay Tennis, an employee at Mazama Store in Okanogan County, told the Bellingham Herald that a girl was brought in on Monday afteoon, local time, claiming she had been in a plane crash. Tennis said paramedics put her on a stretcher and took her to the hospital.