"These are two tough kids"

Rescuers impressed with survivors

By CHERY SABOL

The Daily Inter Lake

When he got the call Wednesday that two injured people had turned up on U.S. 2 saying they survived a plane crash, Lance Westgard of Canyon Quick Response Unit didn't believe it. Everyone aboard that plane had reportedly died.

As he drove from West Glacier to where the pair was found, he tried to find another explanation for who they were.

"I was thinking maybe they were hunters who were flash burned by a camp fire," Westgard said. Maybe there had been a second plane crash after Monday's crash.

But when he arrived, "They said their names," and there was no doubt. Those were the names listed among the victims of Monday's crash: Jodee Hogg and Matthew Ramige.

"Those are two tough kids," Westgard said Thursday.

Both were suffering.

"The girl was still walking around," Westgard said. "She wouldn't lie down."

He was struck that Hogg seemed "in great spirits" to have her ordeal over, Westgard said. She refused pain medication and focused on her anticipation of seeing her family.

Ramige was clearly more severely injured. ALERT helicopter flew him first to Kalispell Regional Medical Center. He was later transferred to a burn center at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he was listed in serious condition Thursday with burns and a fractured back.

Tim Thornton, a paramedic with ALERT helicopter and with Three Rivers EMS - the Columbia Falls ambulance - was with Hogg during the 25-to 30-mile ambulance trip from where she was found to West Glacier, where ALERT would pick her up.

"She's an amazing girl," Thornton said.

She remembered her ordeal vividly and described it to Thornton in the ambulance.

She remembered the plane hitting the ground and speculates she might have been briefly unconscious, Thornton said.

She remembered the fire, trying to get her friend Davita Bryant out of the plane and then hearing Ramige's screams and pulling him out of the wreckage, Thornton said. Pilot Jim Long helped push people out, Hogg told him.

Another passenger, Ken Good, was freed, but succumbed the next morning, Hogg told Thornton. After that, she and Ramige decided to try to walk out.

"As they were walking out, a helicopter flew over them several times," Thornton said. They yelled, believing it was looking for them, but it wasn't. Authorities had mistakenly said everyone onboard the plane had died.

"She didn't talk about what kept her going," Thornton said.

When it got dark, Ramige and Hogg settled down for the second night. They had no matches, no way to start a fire. They had only each other and a heavy burden of pain. They were aware of sounds around them that could have been caused by bears or other animals, but held no promise of rescue.

Wednesday, they found a trail, Thornton said. Grateful that they wouldn't have to bushwhack the whole way out, they made it to U.S. 2 - miles from where the plane crashed.

As Hogg told Thornton the story, reality seemed to hit her, he said.

"She looks up at me and she says, 'My parents think I'm dead.'"

Thornton kept Hogg hydrated and warm, but she didn't need much.

"She was really in good shape," he marveled.

He went to Kalispell Regional Medical Center to see her Thursday and found her still in good spirits and walking.

"She was great," Thornton said.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com