A Dad And His 13-Year-Old Daughter Miraculously Survived A Plane Crash In The Woods And An iPad Helped Rescue Them
Bear Creek Township, Pennsylvania. 58-year-old Chris White spent his whole life dreaming of getting to obtain a pilot’s license, and it’s a dream that he recently realized after decades of working hard to put his family and their needs first.
One thing that Chris has loved doing since getting his license is taking his 13-year-old daughter Angela along with him for Sunday flights through the Poconos.
It was November 14th when Chris and Angela took off from the Wilkes Barre Scranton Airport in a Cessna 150 plane that Chris was piloting, as they have done for so many Sundays.
Unfortunately, things went horribly wrong on this flight for Chris and Angela not long after they took off at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon.
“Chris was using an iPad for his flight program and was using a transponder to maintain communication of their flight status with the local air traffic control tower,” Chris and Angela’s loved ones wrote on a CaringBridge page created for Angela.
“They typically return home around 7:30 pm, but Sharon became worried when 8:30 pm and then 9:00 pm arrived and she had not heard from Chris.”
GoFundMe; pictured above Chris and Angela smile
“She tried calling, but with no answer. She drove to the airport to find Chris’s truck still parked there, covered with a half-inch of snow, and no plane in sight. It was then she knew something was terribly wrong.”
“She called 911, and the dispatcher was able to connect with the air traffic controller, who had noticed that Chris’s plane had previously dropped off the radar.”
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Luckily, Chris had his iPad with him on the plane, and authorities were able to use that to figure out his plane had crashed in the middle of the woods in a state forest.
“Chris does not remember the crash, but the plane was found in the forest,” the CaringBridge page explained.
“It had been piloted between two trees, damaging the wings but allowing the passenger compartment to remain intact. Chris’s phone was lost in the wreckage, but the iPad used for the flight program was with them. The US Air Force search and rescue operation was able to ping the iPad from a local tower and determine their location.”
Miraculously, Chris and Angela survived, and when they were found they were huddled together to stay warm as the temperatures dropped to 37 degrees that night.
Chris and Angela were close to having hypothermia, and they both sustained multiple injuries in the crash but are expected to survive.
Chris got a concussion and fractured several bones. Angela also suffered multiple injuries, including a fracture to her skull, and a fracture to her spine.
Not long after Angela and Chris were brought to the hospital to be treated for their injuries, Angela stopped being able to move her legs.
While Chris is fully expected to recover from his injuries, doctors are not positive if Angela will be able to use her legs again.
Angela’s cousin Andy has created a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs of her treatment. If you would like to donate to the GoFundMe page, you can do that here.
Pennsylvania State Police; pictured above is a copy of the incident report following the plane crash
More About:Human Interest
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