Girl, 2, Found Alive in Wrecked Plane; Father, 2 Others Killed
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WALTON, Ore. — A whimpering 2-year-old was found buckled in her seat, shielded by a body, in the wreckage of small plane that crashed in heavy fog, killing her father, grandmother and another adult, officials said today.
The girl, Aubrey Holst, was in serious condition at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene with broken arms, spinal bruises and possible internal injuries after the Cessna 180 went down in heavily wooded coastal mountains Wednesday.
Lane County Sheriff Dave Burks called the child’s survival “a small miracle.”
Killed were her pilot father, Carson Holst, 32; his mother, Anna Holst, 63, and Darlinda Sue Taylor, 27, whose relationship to the others was not immediately known.
The plane had left Oakridge, where the Holsts live, at 9 a.m. for Florence. Authorities picked up a signal from an emergency locater transmitter on the downed plane, and a search helicopter found the wreckage about 4 p.m.
The plane had struck a tree atop a ridge and came to rest on its right side. The child was found buckled in on the left side and one of the adults was shielding her, officials said.
It took rescuers nearly an hour to carry her up a steep slope to a road about 600 yards from the crash site, 25 miles west of Eugene. She was taken by helicopter to the hospital.
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