CNN)The knock was faint. But, alerted by his two dachshunds, Larry Wilkins went to his door. He opened it to see a young girl, her lips quivering, her nose bloodied, her arms and legs scratched up.
Her name was Sailor Gutzler and somehow, she was still alive.
"She told me that her mom and dad were dead," Wilkins said. "And that she had been in a plane crash."
The
girl's sister and cousin also died when their Piper PA-34 aircraft went
down Friday evening in western Kentucky. Even with the plane upside
down, the 7-year-old made it out and trekked three-quarters of a mile in
the dark through what Wilkins described as "very, very rough
territory," mired with fallen trees, creeks, ditches and blackberry
briars.
Sailor was barefoot except for
one sock and was dressed for Florida -- shorts, no coat -- not for
slogging through the January cold of Kentucky. Wilkins got her on his
couch and called 911, alerting authorities that a plane had gone down
and there was at least one survivor.
Kentucky
State Police troopers arrived in about 10 minutes. Sgt. Dean Patterson
said the girl was taken to a local hospital with injuries that were not
life-threatening.
"She's a terribly brave little girl, I'll tell you that," Wilkins said. "I can't imagine a 7-year-old doing that."
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