Autumn Veatch recalls desperately trying to free screaming grandparents from crash

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Autumn Veatch, 16, is the only survivor of the crash that killed her step grandparents Leland and Sharon Bowman
The three were flying from Kalispell, Montana to Leland, Washington Saturday afternoon when the plane crashed into some trees
She said there was zero visibility before the Saturday accident, and then 'it was all trees and then it was fire'
Authorities have said the plane entered a cloud bank before the crash
Search and rescue teams have now located wreckage of small airplane

By Associated Press and Daily Mail Online Reporter

Published: 19:36 EST, 16 July 2015 | Updated: 07:45 EST, 17 July 2015

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The teenager who survived a small plane crash in Washington's Cascade Mountains says she burned herself as she desperately tried to pull her step-grandparents from the burning wreckage.

Autumn Veatch said both Leland, 62, and Sharon Bowman, 63, were trapped after the crash on Saturday.

'They were alive, they were both screaming … There was no way I could get to grandma because she was on the far side and there was nothing I could do, but I assumed that if I got grandpa out first then maybe she would come out,' she told CNN.

Autumn Veatch, the teenager who survived a small plane crash in Washington's Cascade Mountains, says she burned herself trying to pull her step-grandparents from the burning wreckage

Leland Bowman, 62, and Sharon Bowman, 63, pictured above. Autumn said after the crash her step-grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, were trapped. She said she couldn't get to Sharon Bowman but burned her hand trying to free Leland

'I was trying to pull them out and I just couldn't do it. There was too much fire and I'm a small person.'

She said burned her hand trying to free Leland.

Before she fled she says she told the Bowmans that 'I loved them and that it would be OK,' reports NBC.

The 16-year-old Veatch survived the impact and was able to hike to safety.

She said that she recalled advice from survival TV shows she had watched with her father and headed downhill to water.

It took her about two days to find help after the weekend crash that left her bruised and singed.

She had to make her way down a steep slope and follow a creek to a river. She spent a night on a sand bar and sipped small amounts of water.

'I was certain I was going to die … The second day, the morning after, I was certain I would die of hypothermia because I was freezing,' she told CNN.

She told NBC she fell down a cliff but kept going.

'I was positive I would die': Sole plane crash survivor speaks

Autumn Veatch (pictured recovering in hospital) said there was zero visibility before the Saturday accident, and then 'it was all trees and then it was fire'

Going home: Autumn was pushed in a wheelchair out to her father's car Tuesday evening when she was released from the hospital

'And I just got this surge of willpower and was like there's no way I can die without hugging somebody again,' she said.

She followed the river to a trail, and the trail to a highway where two men driving by stopped and picked her up Monday afternoon, bringing her to a general store in tiny Mazama, near the east entrance of North Cascades National Park.

Two bodies were recovered from the crash site, but authorities said Thursday that the fiery crash has made official identification difficult.

Veatch has confirmed it was the Bowmans who were killed.

Leland Bowman was flying Veatch from Montana to Bellingham, Washington.

After being hospitalized Veatch returned home to Bellingham late Tuesday.

The teen said there was zero visibility before the accident, and then 'it was all trees and then it was fire.'

Recalling the moment of impact she said: 'We completely lost sight of what was going on at all … We couldn't see a single thing, it was all white, and GPS wasn't really working.'

Brave: Autumn (right), pictured here with her dad, David Veatch (second right) and family friends, hiked through the woods to safety after the plane crash

Authorities have said the plane entered a cloud bank before the crash.

She said her grandfather said he was going to try to fly up to avoid a mountain, but 'we started to go up and it was all white, and then it was all trees, and then it was all fire.'

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers has said she and her relatives were flying a Beechcraft A-35 from Kalispell, Montana, to Lynden, Washington, when it struck the trees, plummeted to the ground and caught fire.

Officials will use dental records to confirm the identities of the bodies recovered, which could take about a week, Skagit County Deputy Coroner Matthew Sias said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

The cause of death was 'blunt trauma,' he said, adding 'the injuries we found were consistent with them perishing very quickly.'

Terry Williams, spokesman for National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency is investigating the accident on Thursday but had not reached the site yet because 'the wreckage was located very recently.'