WATCH ABOVE: Autumn Veatch spoke to CBS’ John Blackstone after surviving the crash of a small plane that killed her step-grandparents.
TORONTO – A 16-year-old girl who survived a small plane crash in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State said she badly burned her hand trying to pull her step-grandfather from the crashed plane.
Autumn Veatch told CBS News there was very little visibility before the accident Saturday.
“It was just clouds, and then it was trees, and then it was fire,” she told CBS in an interview Thursday. “I have no idea how I got out, but I mean, I was just packed full of adrenaline and just got out superfast.”
READ MORE: Teen makes it home after Washington mountain plane crash
Veatch was flying the single plane for just the second time in her life when bad weather truck. The teenager survived the crash, but her step-grandparents Leland and Sharon Bowman were trapped inside the flaming wreckage.
Authorities said Thursday that two bodies were recovered from the crash site, but that the fiery crash has made official identification difficult. Veatch later confirmed it was the bodies of her step-grandparents who were killed.
Following the crash Veatch, who was cut and bruised, spent two days wandering through the North Cascades National Park before she found help.
Veatch said she followed a river before night came.
“I figured if I die in my sleep, that would be the most peaceful way to go. But I had like this sudden boost of hope. I was like: ‘No way, there is still so much I have to experience. I can’t die without having done this and this,” Veatch said.
The resilient teen said she followed the river to a trail, which led to a highway where she was spotted and picked up on Monday afternoon by two hikers. They then brought her to a general store near the east entrance of national park.
Veatch was released from a hospital Tuesday evening and arrived home in Bellingham, Washington, north of Seattle, shortly before midnight.
Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers told the Associated Press Veatch and her relatives were flying a Beechcraft A-35 from Montana to Washington when the plane struck the trees and crashed to the ground where it caught fire.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it is investigating the accident.
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