SEATTLE — The teenager who survived a small plane crash in Washington’s Cascade Mountains says she burned herself trying to pull her stepgrandparents from the burning wreckage.

Autumn Veatch told NBC News there was zero visibility before the Saturday accident, and then “it was all trees and then it was fire.”

Authorities have said the plane entered a cloud bank before the crash.

Veatch said after the crash her stepgrandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, were trapped. She said she couldn’t get to Sharon Bowman but burned her hand trying to free Leland.

Before she fled, she said, she told the Bowmans that “I loved them and that it would be OK.”

The 16-year-old Veatch was able to hike to safety.

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Two bodies were recovered from the crash site, but authorities said Thursday that the fiery crash has made official identification difficult. Veatch has confirmed it was the Bowmans.

Leland Bowman was flying Veatch from Montana to Bellingham, Washington. After being hospitalized Veatch returned home to Bellingham late Tuesday.

It took her about two days to find help after the weekend crash that left her bruised and singed.

She told NBC she fell down a cliff but kept going. “And I just got this surge of willpower and was like there’s no way I can die without hugging somebody again,” she said.


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