'Incredible Miracle' of Plane Crash Survivors Ends 2 Families' Grief

Jodee Hogg, 23, of Billings, Mont., and Matthew Ramige, 29, of Jackson, Wyo., were rescued Wednesday after they flagged down a motorist on Highway 2 along the southern boundary of Glacier National Park. The pilot and two other Forest Service employees were killed in the crash.

Hogg suffered a sprained back and ankle, and burns over 10% of her body. She was in stable condition at a Kalispell, Mont., hospital. Ramige suffered a broken back, and burns to his face, chest and legs. He is in serious condition in the burn unit of Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. Neither has talked publicly about the ordeal.

"I'm still in shock," Ramige's mother, Wendy Becker, said at a press conference at Harborview on Thursday. Hogg's father, Jim Hogg, told the Billings Gazette that his family went from "total depression" to "elation" and "cloud nine" in 48 hours.

The families of the pilot and four passengers were notified Tuesday that there were no survivors after search crews found the wreckage in a remote, mountainous area near the park. Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont, after surveying the scene, said the single-engine plane "went from 100 mph to zero in about 40 to 50 feet."

He said the subsequent fire "melted everything."

That anyone survived, he said, "is an incredible miracle."

The single-engine Cessna left Kalispell about 3 p.m. Monday on a routine flight to a nearby wilderness area. The four Forest Service workers on board had planned to conduct a vegetation survey. The flight should have taken 30 minutes, but it encountered bad weather, Dupont said. The last communication from the plane came 15 minutes into the flight.

The wreckage was spotted Tuesday, just above the timberline on Mt. Liebig in the Great Bear Wilderness. After spending more than an hour at the site and sifting through the wreckage, Dupont and Forest Service workers determined there were no survivors.

The sheriff said they found no signs such as footprints or written notes that would lead them to believe anyone had walked out. Dupont said searchers tried to recover what was left of the remains, and one body was airlifted from the scene before sunset Tuesday.