PANAMA CITY, Panama — Miguel Vurac passed up his chance to open Christmas presents with his family, instead hunting through cold Panamanian mountains for three Americans and the pilot of a downed plane. Hours into the search, he was stunned by a faint cry: “Help me.”
The 32-year-old electrician was part of a group of Panamanian volunteers who on Tuesday found 12-year-old Francesca Lewis, the crash’s sole survivor. They also found the bodies of Francesca’s friend Talia Klein, 13; Klein’s father, Michael Klein, 37, a prominent Santa Barbara, Calif., businessman; and Panamanian pilot Edwin Lasso, 23.
The weather was so foggy and cold that emergency crews had suspended the search. Vurac’s brother, Manuel, suggested their group also turn back.
But “my heart told me to go on,” Vurac told The Associated Press by telephone.
Using his binoculars, he spotted a white object hanging from a tree and hiked for an hour and a half to reach what turned out to be the scene of the crash, near the jungle- flanked slopes of the Baru volcano, 270 miles west of Panama City.
“My first impression was that no one had survived,” Vurac said.
One of the plane’s wings and part of its body were hanging from the trees, and another part of the body lay on the ground. Vurac and his two companions began clearing the area with a machete to get a better view.
“All of a sudden we heard a voice saying ‘Help me,’ ” Vurac said. “We were stunned.”
The three discovered Francesca inside the body of the plane, face down, underneath her overturned seat, and with two small suitcases on top of her. They also found a corpse in the cabin and two more outside the plane. Vurac and his brother declined to describe the scene in more detail, saying that should be left to police.
Francesca was freezing, so Vurac and his companions wrapped her in a blanket and garbage bag and gave her a local sugar-cane drink to raise her body temperature.
They spent the night with the girl, keeping her awake out of fear she would lose consciousness. Manuel Vurac had left, but returned at dawn with a team of rescue workers after keeping in touch with his brother by cellphone throughout the night.
Rescue workers struggled for several hours against heavy rains and high-altitude winds to carry Francesca by stretcher from the crash site to a spot where a helicopter could land, said Chiriqui Civil Protection Director Armando Palacios.
A preliminary investigation showed the Cessna 172 struck a tree and split in two, said National Civil Protection director Roberto Velasquez.
“It is miraculous that the girl could survive that impact,” he said.
Francesca suffered hypothermia, contusions and muscle injuries, but was in stable condition Thursday at a private hospital in nearby David with her parents, Valerie and Kirk Lewis.
Dr. Samuel Cattan told the AP by phone Thursday that her condition was steadily improving and estimated she could fly back to Santa Barbara in less than a week. He said doctors had been working to keep her kidneys free of toxins released into the blood after her body was banged repeatedly.
