A father and his teenage daughter were flying a single-engine plane over Pennsylvania. Suddenly the plane began to descend rapidly and went off the radar.
The plane went down in a wooded area around 7pm. Rescuers and about 30 other volunteers went in search of the plane. It was cold and snowy. The drone was of little help. Heat detectors were also ineffective as the plane had cooled down.
After finding out who the pilot of the plane was, rescuers called his wife and got his mobile phone number.
“The rescuers were able to ping the mobile phone and found out that the daughter has an iPad. You can ping signals from some iPads and once we got the coordinates, we located them,” one of the rescuers reported.
The victims had severe hypothermia and minor injuries.
“They huddled together, trying to keep warm,” recalls the rescuer.
The father and daughter were taken to hospital and are recovering.
Police Sergeant John Richards believes it is a miracle that the victims survived.
“I can only explain it by the presence of God. I think there is a higher being who cared for them,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash.
