DHAKA: She was a living miracle, but something 71-year-old Larry Wilkins never expected to see: a bleeding and shoeless young girl - the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed four of her family members - standing on the doorstep of his Kentucky home, begging for help.
“She was bleeding pretty bad,” Wilkins told NBC News on Saturday as he recalled how a terrified Sailor Gutzler showed up on the doorstep.
“Her legs were bleeding, her face had a bloody nose,” he recalled. “She was barefoot ... only had one sock on.”
“She told me that her mom and her dad were dead, and she was in a plane crash, and the plane was upside-down,” he said. “She asked if she could stay here.
“I said, ‘Honey, what can I do for you?’ I got a washcloth and cleaned her up. And of course called 911.”
Sailor, 7, appeared at Wilkins’ home at about 6:30 p.m. Friday — nearly 40 minutes after a small Piper PA-34 plane heading for Mount Vernon, Ill., from Tallahassee, Fla., reported engine trouble and then lost contact with an air traffic controller, according to Federal Aviation Authority officials.
She’s the daughter of Marty Gutzler, 49, and Kimberly Gutzler, 45, of Nashville, Ill. Both were killed when the small plane crashed and flipped in the backwoods of southwestern Kentucky, officials said.
Sailor’s sister, Piper, 9, and cousin Sierra Wilder, 14, also died in the crash, investigators said.
Despite the frigid January temperatures and the thick briar-and brush-strewn hillside in front of her, the little lone survivor hiked three quarters of a mile before spotting Wilkins’ home.
“This girl came out of the wreckage herself and found the closest residence and reported the plane crash,” said Sgt. Dean Patterson of the Kentucky State Police. “It’s a miracle in a sense that she survived it, but it’s tragic that four others didn’t.”
Wilkins never heard the crash and was stunned when he learned what had happened to his young, frightened visitor.
“She’s a terribly brave little girl, I’ll tell you that,” Wilkins. “I can’t imagine a 7-year-old doing that.”
Sailor was taken to Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Ky., and released to a relative early Saturday, officials said.
State and FAA response teams recovered her family’s remains and began their investigation into the cause of the crash.
A family member at the Gutzlers’ Illinois home waved away reporters coming to the door Saturday.
Not now,” the man 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, which is about 50 miles east of St. Louis.
Gutzler ran a furniture store his father started, and the couple was well-known and well-liked, neighbor Carla Povolish told reporters.
The Gutzlers’ home was a center of fun on a block full of children, Povolish said.
“All the kids in the neighborhood are just so upset about this,” she said, adding that Piper and her surviving sibling were inseparable.
“That’s what’s going to be so devastating for the little one,” she said.
Sources: Daily News
BDST: 1130 HRS, JAN 04, 2015
