Miracles Come From Tragedy

Friday evening brought tragedy to the Gutzler family as the twin engine aircraft their father was flying crashed and everyone on board passed away, except for the youngest passenger. 7 year-old Sailor Gutzler was the lone survivor in this horrific accident.  Bruised, scratched, with broken bones and bleeding she trudged three quarters of a mile through Kentucky's January weather in Florida attire until she knocked on the door of Larry Wilkins.  Sailor Gutzler told Wilkins that she had been in a plane crash and both her mom and dad were dead.  Also on the plane had been her 9 year-old sister and her 14 year-old cousin.

Investigators Trying To Determine The Cause of the Crash

Her father, Marty Gutzler, had been flying since he was 16 and had logged about 4,000 hours, and taught as a flight instructor.   The family was flying from Key West, to Nashville, IL, and according to family, he had made the trip "many, many times" At 5:55pm Marty had made a distress call, and then lost contact with the air traffic controllers. They were less than 10 miles from the airport they would have stopped at to get help.  About 40 minutes after Air control lost contact, the Kentucky Police received a call from Wilkins with the news of Sailor being alive.  She had used survival skills, taught to her by her father, to light a branch from the burning plane so she could light up her path to find help.

Their home town is devastated, but from all of this, we can truly see how amazing her story is.  This is nothing short of a miracle that a 7 year-old could have found her way out of such a tragic situation.  Wilkins called 911 right away and cleaned her up.  It is truly reassuring to know that in light of a horrible situation, there were people out there who helped out and helped this amazing little girl.