‘Miracle.’ iPad leads rescuers to dad, daughter after plane crash, PA officials say
After a plane crash left a father and his 13-year-old daughter stranded in the Pennsylvania woods, the teen’s iPad helped rescuers find them, authorities said.
The father and daughter were the only two on board the single-engine plane that crashed after taking off from Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport the evening of Sunday, Nov. 14, the FAA said in a statement.
The two were headed for Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport in Tobyhanna, Penn., the FAA said.
The FAA issued an alert notice around 7:30 p.m. the same day to agencies to alert them about the missing plane.
State police told WNEP it was a “miracle” that the pair survived, after being stranded for hours. Police located the two at 2 a.m. Monday, according to the FAA.
The U.S. Air Force helped rescue the 58-year-old father and his daughter after they pinged the daughter’s iPad and the dad’s cell phone to locate them in the woods southeast of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton airport in Luzerne County, The Associated Press reported.
“The daughter saves both of them by using her iPad and her dad was cuddling the daughter to give her warmth because they were both exposed to the elements and were suffering from hypothermia at the time,” Sgt. John Richards of the Pennsylvania State Police told WNEP.
Sgt. Richards said in his decades of experience he’d never seen anyone survive a plane crash of this magnitude.
“I’ve been a state trooper 28 years, and this is the first time that I’ve had a plane crash of this type where anybody survived, let alone two people survived,” Sgt. Richards told WNEP.
Overnight temperatures were in the mid-30s.
The names and conditions of the father and daughter two were not disclosed.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 2:34 PM with the headline "‘Miracle.’ iPad leads rescuers to dad, daughter after plane crash, PA officials say."
