A pilot and his two young daughters survived on the wing of a plane for approximately 12 hours after it crashed and became partially submerged in a frozen lake in Alaska.
Terry Godes said that on Sunday night he saw a Facebook post asking for help to search for the missing plane, which did not have an emergency locator transmitter. On Monday morning, a dozen pilots, including Godes, set out to explore the rugged terrain. Godes headed to Lake Tustumena, near the base of a glacier, and spotted what he believed were wreckage.
The Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser plane was reported missing in the Lake Tustumena and Kenai Mountains area on Sunday around 10:30 p.m. (06:30 GMT on Monday) after it did not return at the expected time.
"It broke my heart a little to see that, but as I got closer and descended, I could see that there were three people on the wing," he told The Associated Press (AP).
After saying a prayer, he continued to approach and witnessed a miracle.
"They were alive, alert, and moving," said Godes, adding that they waved at him.
The missing Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, piloted by a man with his underage daughters on board, was touring from Soldotna to Skilak Lake on the Kenai Peninsula.
In an early Monday social media post, John Morris pleaded with people to help search for his son and granddaughters, saying they had not returned from a Sunday afternoon flight.
The three were rescued on the east shore of Lake Tustumena on Monday by the Alaska National Guard after Godes alerted other pilots searching that he had found the plane.
Another pilot, Dale Eicher, heard Godes' radio call and relayed it to authorities, as he was closer to Skilak Lake and thought he had better cell signal. He was also able to provide the plane's coordinates to the authorities.
"I wasn't sure if we would find them, especially because there was a layer of clouds over much of the mountains, so they could easily have been in those clouds that we couldn't access," Eicher said. But finding the family alive an hour after starting the search "was very good news."
"I didn't expect to find them and didn't expect to find them alive," Dale Eicher told local TV station KTUU, as reported by AFP.
The three were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, said Alaska State Police officers.
Godes mentioned that many miracles were at play, from the plane not sinking, to the survivors being able to stay on the wing, to surviving overnight temperatures that dropped below zero degrees Celsius.
"They spent a long, cold, dark, and wet night on the wing of a plane in a place they hadn't planned for," said Godes.
Alaska has few roads, forcing many communities to rely on small planes for transportation.