Father of plane crash survivor: 'It's a miracle'

“She’s a teenager, she’s young, she’s strong,” Veatch said. “She has some amazing gifts.”

David Veatch said doctors at the Brewster Hospital told him Autumn is severely dehydrated, exhausted and may have muscular trauma from the crash impact into the mountainside.  Yet, Veatch could be released from the hospital as soon as Tuesday.

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“Yes, it’s a miracle,” David Veatch said. “We had, I don’t know how many people say they’re praying for her on Facebook. Yes, I believe it works. Now, if I can convince her to come to church with me,” he said.

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Rick LeDuc, who owns a general Store in Mazama, Washington, says when Autumn walked through the door at 3 p.m. Monday she had cuts and scrapes, and an unbelievable story.

“She said she'd been through a traumatic experience, and a crash, and had been out for the past two days," he said.

LeDuc says a driver spotted her walking along Highway 20 near the Easy Pass trailhead. She told the driver she'd spent two days hiking down a drainage basin of the dangerously steep rugged mountainside.

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She said a plane owned by her step-grandparents, 62-year-old Leland bowman and his 63-year-old wife Sharon, suddenly crashed into the side of the Cascade Mountains two days before.

“They were over the mountains, got into some clouds, and the last she remembers, it was mountains coming up very quickly and the rest is kind of a blur, it sounds like," said LeDuc.

LeDuc said Veatch didn't elaborate on the condition of her grandparents after the crash, only saying she had to leave them and the wreckage to find help.

After her 48 hour treacherous rocky trek, LeDuc said she was clearly dehydrated and exhausted.

“She was given something to drink, and a sandwich actually to eat, she hadn't eaten in two days," said LeDuc.

LeDuc said he never would have guessed her harrowing story, just by looking at her.

“She looked like she'd been through an ordeal, but considering the time she had been out and, what had happened to her she looked remarkably good, considering."

David Veatch told KIRO one of Autumn's survival tactics came from watching reality survivor shows.

She told her father she remembered to follow where water drains down the mountainside to find a clear path to the bottom.  It turns out the highway ran right next to the trailhead.

Friends relieved to her Autumn's voice

Friends of the Bellingham teen said they were relieved to hear Autumn's voice on Monday afternoon.

“I’m just happy she’s safe,” Amber Shockey said through tears.

She, Savannah Lampman, and Trevor Lampman all talked to her on speaker phone Monday afternoon after Autumn called her father from an ambulance heading to the hospital in Brewster.

“Honestly, I wish I could be right there with her right now,” Amber said.

They said Autumn was happy she was safe and even made them laugh.

“She said she could really use McDonald's right now,” Savannah Lampman said.

Her friends couldn’t imagine how she managed to survive not only a plane crash in the North Cascades, but also two nights in the wilderness while hiking to safety.

“It’s miraculous,” Santina Lampman, a friend of Autumn’s father, said. “It's completely amazing that she did it. I'm so proud of her.”

TV shows helped her survive ordeal

Amber said on the phone that Autumn credited her dad for her survival, specifically, his insistence on certain shows.

“Her dad said, ‘Isn't it great I made you watch all those survival shows with me?’ and she was like ‘Yes, thank you,’” Amber said.

Santina Lampman said they never lost hope.

“Nobody had that feeling that she was gone,” she said. “We all just kind of kept saying-- but we don’t feel like it, we feel like she's still there somewhere.”

Aerial searches for the missing plane are planned to resume Tuesday morning.