Amid the realization that her family members could be dead, 7-year-old Sailor Gutzler, the lone survivor of the Piper plane crash in Kentucky on Friday, walked a quarter of mile in the wooded darkness to look for help.

She applied the survival skills taught by her father, 48-year-old Marty Gutzler, who owns and piloted the ill-fate plane that flew despite the inclement weather.

Like Us on Facebook

The young girl got out of the upside plane that was burning, lit a stick from the jet's burning wing and walked through the woods and a creek until she saw the house of Larry Wilkins and knocked on it to seek assistance, NBC reports.

Wilkins recalls that the second grader was shoeless and only had one sock, short-sleeve shirt and shorts amid almost freezing temperature, and was whimpering and trembling. Her nose, arms and legs were bloodied.

The Gutzler family, who were aboard the aircraft, came from their Christmas vacation in Key West Florida and were returning home to Mount Vernon in southern Illinois when the accident happened.

Wilkins, 71, got a wash cloth and cleaned up Sailor and then called 911. Lt. Brent White, the police officer from Kentucky State Police who responded after the force was informed by 911, described the young girl as very shaken, but alive. She also had some broken bones.

White took her to Lourdes Hospital in Paduca for treatment and the brave young girl, who said she tried to wake up family members after the crash, was released on early Saturday morning.

White said, quoted by AP, "She literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole and didn't have anybody but her own will to live and get help for her family."

Besides Marty, who had 4,000 flying hours since he has been a pilot since he was 16, other family members who perished in the plane crash were his wife Kimberly, 46; daughter Piper, 9; and niece Sierra Wilder, 14.

The family runs a furniture business in Nashville, Illinois which was started by Sailor's grandfather over 50 years ago. Kent Plotner, the spokesman and lawyer of the Gutzler family, sought prayers, particularly for Sailor and asked that their privacy be respected at this period of bereavement.

The bodies of her family are now in Louisville for autopsy.

According to investigators of the crash, the plane developed engine trouble. Air traffic controllers told Marty to an airport that was 5 to 7 miles away from the crash scene, but he lost contact with the controllers and the plane crashed at 5:55 p.m.

Tagssailor gutzler, Larry Wilkins, Kentucky plane crash