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A plane with two adults and a 7-month old baby on board crashed into the Matanuska River in Glacier View, Alaska, on Saturday evening.
Luckily, a North Texas school was on a field trip in the area and came to the rescue. Grapevine Faith Christian School was along the river finishing up a zip line tour when tour guide Brett Winterbottom saw a plane at a lower-than-normal altitude, according to WFAA.
"This plane that was coming in, we all saw it because it was really low, and we were concerned he didn’t see the zip line. I looked at my coworkers and I was like, 'Did that plane just go down, did that plane just crash,'" Winterbottom said as he saw the plane go down behind a tree line.
Winterbottom asked if anyone in the group had medical experience, to which Tammy Saunders replied that she did. She used to be a trauma nurse in Dallas for more than 10 years and is also trained as an air transport EMT. Winterbottom and Saunders went to the area where the plane was. "It was completely annihilated. It was folded in half, flipped upside down and just torn apart," Winterbottom said about the plane.
The tour guide tethered himself to an ATV and swam into the river. Officials told WFAA that Winterbottom handed the baby to Saunders, who began medical aid. Winterbottom also grabbed Logan Snyder, 27. Nichole Snyder, 26, was able to swim to the shore on her own, where she was rescued by a private helicopter. "When I saw the water and the rush of the river, I knew that it was critical that we had to get them out of the water," Saunders said.
Until the LifeMed Air ambulance arrived, Saunders quickly tried to warm the baby. The baby was transported to Providence Medical Center, which reports he is in "fair condition."
"They were severely injured and traumatized and soaking wet in 35-degree water for like 10 minutes before they were able to like really be rescued. Just the willpower that they showed and the desire to live was incredible," Winterbottom said.
Alaska State Troopers thanked Winterbottom and Saunders for their life-saving efforts. "AST would like to thank the citizens who provided immediate rescue efforts and saved these three individuals,"