Larry Wilkins was watching television Friday evening when he heard a faint knock on his front door of his home in Lyon County, Ky., east of Paducah. When he opened the door, he discovered a 7-year-old girl standing in the cold. She was bloodied, covered in scratches and barefoot except for a single sock.
“She told me that her mom and her dad were dead, and she was in a plane crash, and the plane was upside down,” Wilkins told NBC News. “She asked if she could stay here. I said, ‘Honey, what can I do for you?’ I got a washcloth and cleaned her up. And of course called 911.”
Police have not released the name of the survivor, who managed to walk nearly a mile in the dark through territory full of “fallen trees, creeks, ditches and blackberry briars,” according to CNN. She was taken to a hospital where she is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, CNN reported.
Authorities say the girl was one of five people flying in a Piper PA-34 over Kentucky when it reported engine trouble and lost contact with air traffic controllers about 5:55 p.m. Central time, according to the Associated Press. Authorities said the plane had taken off from Tallahassee Regional Airport in Florida, and was headed to Mount Vernon, Ill., according to the AP.