The crash Friday night killed 48-year-old Marty Gutzler, his 46-year-old wife, Kimberly Gutzler, their nine-year-old daughter Piper Gutzler and 14-year-old Sierra Wilder, a cousin, according to Kentucky State Police. The family was from Nashville, Illinois, police said.

 

The surviving daughter was able to walk to a nearby home to seek help, police said. She was then taken to an area hospital and treated for minor² injuries, before being released to a family member early this morning, said Kentucky State Police spokesman Dean Patterson.

 

The girl's name was withheld³ at the request of family members, he said.

 

"When you have a small plane crash in a wooded area it is going to cause significant damage," said Patterson. "It is amazing to me that the smallest person in that aircraft was the one that survived."

 

An area homeowner, Larry Wilkins, told CNN that the girl was crying and bloodied⁴ when she showed up at his door, nearly a mile from the crash site, and told him her parents were dead. "She's a terribly brave little girl," Wilkins said.

 

The family had spent the New Year's holiday in Florida, visiting a son who lives there, and was returning home when the plane went down.

 

The Gutzlers were part-owners of a family-owned furniture store that has served the southern Illinois community of Nashville for five decades. Employees and customers alike were in mourning, said family friend and store employee Troy Dunbar.

 

"This whole community is heartbroken," he said.

 

Marty and Kim Gutzler's Facebook pages feature pictures of the couple celebrating New Year's Eve with a lobster⁵ dinner, as well as photos of the couple and the children packed into their airplane.

 

Dunbar said he had been told the girl had suffered a broken arm in the crash.

 

"She was so attached to her dad," he said. "He would bring her into the store a lot and she was never out of his sight."

点击收听单词发音