Autumn Veatch, 16, couldn't tell the 911 operator where in the Washington state wilderness the small plane went down. Somehow, she survived; her grandparents apparently didn't.

Veatch, covered in bruises and burns, hiked out of the rugged mountains two days after Saturday's crash, police said.

"...When ELTs were mandated in 1973, most GA aircraft were equipped with an ELT that transmits on the 121.5 MHz frequency, the designated international distress frequency. The original ELTs were manufactured to the specifications of an FAA technical standard order (TSO-C91) and have an activation rate of less than 25 percent in actual crashes and a 97 percent false-alarm rate. ..."

A crew of mountain-rescue volunteers and a Skagit County Sheriff’s deputy are among those hiking Wednesday morning through rough terrain to reach the site of what could be the plane crash that 16-year-old Autumn Veatch survived.

Late Tuesday, state officials said search crews spotted wreckage of a plane near where the teenager emerged from the woods, but they were unable to reach the site.
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John Himmel of the Washington State Department of Transportation said the agency could not verify that the wreckage was from the Beech A35 that was piloted by Autumn Veatch’s step-grandparents. Veatch said she was the only survivor.

“We don’t know that we’ve found the right wreckage; we know we’ve found wreckage,” he said. Himmel said the wreckage is less than half a mile from the highway as the crow flies.