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For sailor gutzler, surviving a plane crash was the first ordeal the next was surviving the rest of her life without her immediate family. the 7-year-old was the sole survivor of this crash that left her mother, her father, her older sister and cousin dead. and as horrific as all of that is she then had to set off alone, freezing in a dark wooded area in the rain to try to find help. so we sent our cnn crew including our correspondent martin savidge retracing her steps to see exactly how tough that trek was. any direction takes you into deep brush. it s not like i m looking for the easiest path. there is no path just dense undergrowth that grabs, trips and stabs. this is really nasty stuff. you can see the really sharp needles on here, these are briars. got to pull away from that. we ll be back in a second. we were talking about the news bob mcdonnell sentenced to two ....
Where do you go from here? any direction takes you into deep brush. it s not like i m looking for the easiest path. there is no road just dense undergrowth that trips, and stabs. you can see the sharp needles on here. these are briars. in the darkness getting hit in the face. it s no wonder she was cut up. but that s one of many obstacles. downed tree limbs. could be from old storms in the past ice storms. remember she s wearing shorts and short sleeves. there are steep inclines ditches, and an endless number of ways to get seriously hurt. you can easily get a leg caught snap, it break a bone. you also start walking in circles since the brush blocks your view of any landmarks. but it s so thick you can t really get a real sense of ....
Undergrowth that grabs, trips and stabs. this is really nasty stuff. you can see the really sharp needles on here. these are briars. in the darkness, just getting smacked in the face. it s no wonder she was all cut up. reporter: but that s just one of many obstacles. just downed tree limbs everywhere, could be from storms, ice storms. remember, she s wearing shorts, short sleeves. reporter: there are steep inclines, ditches and an endless number of ways to get seriously hurt. you could easily get a leg caught, snap it, break a bone. reporter: you also start walking in circles, since the brush blocks your view of any landmarks. but it s so thick you can t really get a real sense of direction. reporter: i stumble around for a while longer. what a mess. reporter: then give up and call out to my photographer in a ....
Thankfully they were close. what did you talk about during those ten minutes? what went on inside the house? well i tried to get all the information out of her i could but a little seven-year-old girl lipping trembling, trying to talk couldn t understand much of what she said. i probably asked her name three or four times and i never did get it right but when the state policeman came he would write it down and hold it up to her and say is this the way you spell it? he finally got her name? talk to me about the area around your house. you said there was a creek bed, briars a difficult walk for anybody let alone a seven-year-old girl. we had an ice storm here in 2008 and this woods is well i was told last night it was about 1,400 acres total but here ....
Would say 30 percent of the trees were knocked down and broken and laying on the ground. a lot of briars and wild rosebushes and like i say downed limbs and one of the ravines is probably 15 or 20 feet deep that she had to cross barefooted pitch black. what went through your mind larry. she starts to tell you her story, what did you think? before she told the story i thought she was in a car wreck. you know i never seen a plane crash in my life, and every one i ever seen was on tv when you think of a plane crash you think of a big boom and a fire and when she told me her parents were dead and she was in a plane ....