our daughter chose to go up and fly in an airplane. she was always just driven to the perfect. >> my dad pulled up -- said mckenzie's missing. >> i am not ready to plan a funeral. a teenage girl out to earn her pilot's license sets off on a solo flight. >> she was well trained. she's capable. >> but something went wrong. >> i start eed thinking, she should be there by now. >> hours stretched on without word. her parents frantic. >> i had that eerie feeling. the kind you don't entertain as a parent. >> something wasn't rinchts mckenzie vanished leaving behind

empty skies and a terrible fear. had her plane gone down in some of the most dangerous ter ranchts not where want to see yourself let alone a young girl. >> a search, a race against time. >> if it got dark it would add to the chances she would understand up dying out there. >> had a girl's dream turned deadly. >> mom and dad, i crashed my plane. >> a treacherous journey leading to an astounding discovery. >> what was that like to see? >> it was shock. >>ite lester holt, and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with, "in to the wild." >> reporter: there are places in the american west that quite rightly inspire fear along with awe. like the wild haunts of grizz grizzlies in the mountains. likely overconsonant heart of a precocious teenage girl.

like the terrified love of a parent. your girl is gone. >> we have no control. you're in god's hands, so to speak. it was miserable. >> reporter: but her? nobody thought it would happen to mckenzie morgan. >> you're just quiet. there's not a thing that we can do. >> help! >> reporter: to mckenzie the parents she was always exceptional. their super girl. >> a kid that started reading at 2, 2 1/2, speaking in sentences at a year and a half. >> reporter: she excelled in school, threw a wicked curveball and a sixth sense for the outdoors, developed elk hunting with her dad. >> she's a great kid. >> always wanted to go often are and do the next thing? >> the next thing. doing as good as you can. >> reporter: more than anything, mckenzie wanted to fly. frankly, that desire came packaged in her genes. great-grandfather, grandfather,

uncles, like jared hansen, all pilots. mckenzie and grandpa got together. >> we talked and said that if she wants to do it let's help her out. >> reporter: hur parents were fine with it, too. a lot of people would look at this and say, god, you really feel good about letting your daughter go off and fly an airplane at her age? >> i see kids they sit there and communicate and text. our daughter chose to go up and fly in an airplane. i was more scared of her driving than flying. >> reporter: when mckenzie was 17, her uncle loaned her an cessna and grandfather lessons. they had been doing this very thing in and around bill gz, montana, since she was born. that is your ticket to what? >> anywhere i want to go. i fly it through canada. i fly it to mexico. you know, you get to see things that a lot of times, that other

people anever going to get to see. >> reporter: so when the girl showed up in flight school in nearby laurel in august 2013 brimming with confidence, bobbi jurped right in. she could see right away mckenzie was a natural. like when she put her in frosted goggles and asked to fly by instruments only. >> i put her in situation where is she couldn't see out the window and i'd say, mckenzie, where's the airport? and she'd shock me. because she could point. holy smokes. >> reporter: so when the time came for mckenzie to fly solo, bobbi didn't worry. how did she do in that first solo flight? >> she did great. she was awesome. >> reporter: it's a tradition after the first flight to cut out the back of your t-shirt. a friend took the picture. a second solo went just as well. and then -- after three weeks of training, one last test flight. the big one. the crosscountry solo. the faa insists it be at least

five hours over 150 nautical miles with stops in three it different airports, followed by three landings at another airport. in this case, billings, montana. a challenge, of course, but if mckenzie was comfort and she was, then so were her parents. >> not like she was just sent up in an airplane. well trained. she's capable. she was ready. >> reporter: so august 20th, mckenzie left home early and her proud mom took a picture, and then at the airport, she encountered a little push from fate. >> the b-1 bomber crashed during a routine training mission regard day before a military plane went down near by and the air space over the vast lands to the east was temporarily closed. could have put off the test but decided not to. >> because the weather was good. the winds aren't too strong. all of the conditions, you know, you want to make sure there

good. yeah. we checked that very closely. >> reporter: so bobbi and mckenzie plotted a modified trip with stops at little airports over the state line in wyoming. around 10:00 a.m., checks complete, mckenzie climbed into the cockpit. >> i wanted to give her a hug in the worst way. and then i thought, nah. i'll give her a hug on the day we finish all of this, because she's going to go, oh, syrupy old people. but -- i was confident. totally confident. >> reporter: 30 minutes in, mckenzie texted bobbi, first leg, complete, from wyoming. how that go? >> that went well. she was headed to cody. >> reporter: cody, wyoming. after about 25 minutes, land landed there, texting bobbi and her mother, all is well. then a second little push from fate, though none knew it, a huge forest fire erupted to the west. smoke billowed towards mckenzie's revised flight path. by now, mckenzie was on her way

to graybold, wyoming. tiny airport turked behind a ridge, hard to see from the air, through the smoky haze. white-knuckle landing. the message you got, it wasn't as easy this time? >> right. she let me know she got a little disoriented, things went well, there and able to go ahead and taxi over, tie the plane down. take a little break. >> reporter: she texted she ate lunch, refuelled and because one runway was closed for repairs, she used an alternate runway, heading in a different direction. still, the last reg wleg was th easie easiest. following big horn river over the yellow tail dam, make landings at the billings around and a final flight back to where bobbi was waiting. >> of course, i'm excited. we're really rolling. don't have far to go here now. closer to home. >> reporter: it was mid-afternoon now. mckenzie's mother hadn't heard

from her for a while. and suddenly sensed something odd. >> i had that eerie feeling. the kind you don't entertain as a parent. >> reporter: her father driving to work tells it, too. >> something just wasn't right. an hour out of town i turned around, came back. >> reporter: bobbi expected to hear from mckethzy about 3:00. 3:00 came and went. she busied herself. staid close to the phone and that went on, tick, tick, tick. >> yes. >> reporter: when did you start to worry? >> about 3:15. i started thinking -- she should be there by now. >> reporter: bobbi called the billings tower. no one had heard from mckengzy. >> you try to think the best. she's landed somewhere. she's safe. i'll hear from you, but nothing. >> reporter: and that's, what? 3:30? 3:40?

3:45? >> and about 3:50, i get a phone call. from flight service station. they said your student has passed through. i just want you to know. it was five seconds, we will declare her missing. ah. worst words in the whole world. mckenzie forgen seems to have disappeared. for everyone who cares about her, the beginning of a heart-stopping odyssey. when we return, as a frantic search gets underway, more bad news. >> i asked what the route was, and my heart just hey john, check it out.

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bobbi powers was living a flight instructor's worst nightmare. 17-year-old mckenzie morgan, a natural young flier and her special student was just gone. >> to start thinking what did i do wrong? did i miss something? i didn't want to admit, this is real. >> reporter: but it was. no time for second guessing. >> i said, is my airplane here? i'll be off the ground in 15 minutes. i'll be looking for her. >> reporter: she climbed into her plane. taxied to the gas pump for fuel. the manager hurried over. >> and he said -- we can't give you fuel. we are not allowing anyone to buy fuel right now. we need it for our operations. >> reporter: they were running low, said the manager. they had their own charter, and fire fighting operation to fuel. what did you say?

>> i looked him square in the eye and i said, i need fuel, and right now i'd kill you for fuel. my girl is down. i will have fuel. and he got a big -- look on his face and he said, give her all the fuel she wants. just get her her fuel. >> reporter: file they were fueling the plane, bobbi got on the phone and began to organize a search party. friends, friends of friends and in minutes she and her husband were airborne. >> my husband said, you have to call kim. worst day of my life, and i did not want to do that. but i wasn't brave enough to call her mother, because i'm a mother. so i did the next best thing. i called her grandfather. >> reporter: the pilot? >> yes. and i said, mckenzie's missing. and he said, i will be in the airplane in 15 minutes.

>> reporter: mckenzie's grandpa drove to where her uncle jared was working. >> around 4:00, 4:30. my dad pulled up, and said mckenzie's missing. sorry. >> reporter: and then finally, they called mckenzie's mom, kristy. what was that like, to get that call? >> the bottom kind of drops out. you know, you do. you go, you have that tendency to go dark for a second and you think, i am not ready to plan a funeral. >> reporter: they tried to stay positive. after all, they told themselves, by now a posse of pilots was taking awe making its way up in the air to look for her. one of the searchers, a photography larry mayer a 30-year flight veteran. >> i asked her what the route was. to be hon oeft, my heart sank. i newspaper the terrain along the route and it's not very good terrain.

>> reporter: such bad terrain, in fact, that larry was carrying an emergency kit he packed in case he found her alive. >> i put together a sleeping bag, some bottles of water. granola bars, hand-held radio and large caliber handgun, because it's grizzly country. >> there's mountain lions, coyotes. it's not where you'd want to see yourself let alone a young girl. >> reporter: brian was in his super cub. a graduate of bobbi's flight school and he and all the pilots knew what might be waiting out there. >> i think that every person in the air had worst-case scenarios playing through their minds. >> reporter: mckenzie missing over an hour. there were nine small planes in the air scouring the ground. >> over to 1-22-75. >> reporter: over the radio

agreed to divide the miles and miles of southern montana and northern wyoming into a grid. >> everybody -- was looking everywhere. i mean, there was guys heading north and south, east and west. >> someone would say okay i'm looking in the garvin basin. someone else, okay, i'm going to go look, you know, along the north rim of the canyon. >> you know, your head's on a swivel, looking, looking, looking. hoping and praying you're going to find that person as quickly as you can. >> reporter: most of these pilots have been on searches before. they'd found plane wrecks, but rarely survivors. r. >> the whole time up there in the search, thinking, in the back of your mind, thinking that -- it was always a concern. >> reporter: they raced the clock. sundown just a few hours away. >> the stakes went way up. if it got dark, because if she had been injured, and had not been found, that would just really add to that chance that she would end up dying out

there. coming up -- phone records provide the first clue to mckenzie's whereabouts, but will they help? >> i was like, well, that makes no sense. >> huh-uh. >> reporter: and then, one of the search pilots catches sight of something on the ground. >> my first reaction was, oh, my god.

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mckenzie morgan's parents were frantic, waiting for word of their mirrorsing daughter. what could they do? >> i was like, well, just ping the cell phone, see where she last made her call. >> reporter: they asked police to pull her phone record and eventually learned she last used her phone at 2:30. half an hour before due back in billings. after that, nothing. then looked at the gps coordinates of the call and, oh, no. >> if was four miles, four, five miles south of cody. that makes no -- i couldn't -- in my head fathom. i was like, well, that makes no sense. >> huh-uh. >> it's 180 degrees the wrong way. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: mckenzie was supposed to be here. in billings airspace. instead, the phone pinged south of cody, wyoming. up in the air, bobbi heard the news and was alarmed. mckenzie was way too close to the mountains. >> how could she be here? you know?

i've watched her flying skills. i was totally confident that there was just no way she would become this confused. >> reporter: mckenzie's uncle and grandfather moved their search to the area the ping came from. still, no sign of mckenzie. >> 2-01. 1-275. >> reporter: flotnot a single searcher saw a clue anywhere. >> there's not an airplane at fort smith, no, not at greybull. no, she didn't go back to cody. she hasn't arrived back in laurel. >> reporter: mckengzy's plane like all such planes was equipped with an emergency beacon. elt they call it, which should go off in a crash, but there was no signal from any elt. so what did that make you think? >> that she's safe. if her elt could go off they'd pick of the signal and we'd go find her.

we're thinking, this is a positive thing. >> reporter: unless -- unless it hadn't gone off because of something very, very bad. >> not having it meant that the airplane had crashed very severely. or was upside down. or possibly burned. >> reporter: shadows lengthen in the deepening afternoon. the forest fire smoky tail blurred the ground beneath them. and mckenzie's family, all they had to hang on to was knowledge that the searchers wouldn't quit. >> was there solace in that? no. it was miserable. i'm not going to lie. >> reporter: up in the air, they kept looking. suddenly, larry mayer spot add crashed plane right beneath him i. was a little startled to be looking for an airplane and then see an airplane sitting there. brian saw it, too. >> my first reaction of seeing an airplane down below was, oh, my god, i found her. >> reporter: but, no.

he hadn't. the wreckage was from a fatal crash larry covered for the paper years earlier, but -- >> it just adds more fuel to the fire that you're running out of -- number one, running out of time. it's getting dark. this is probably what i'm going to find some place up here. >> reporter: they fought to focus through the evening shadows. brian and his super cub equipped to fly low and slow skimmed the trees and rocky beach. >> you get into a place called black canyon, which is, you know, vertical cliff walls, and black timber down in the bottom of it that, you know, it's like finding a needle in a haystack in there. >> reporter: by 8:00 p.m., mckenzie was five hours over due. the rescue pilots were tired and running out of fuel and daylight. and then -- the authorities call. >> we have along the search and rescue process to the air force at this time. >> reporter: the military would take over. the man said, we'd send out a team in the morning and in 30 minutes, bobbi and her friends

would be ordered out of the air. bobbi had one last area to search. shell canyon, in the big horn mountain. >> rough, rugged, horrid terrain. out of all the wrong ways she could have gone, it would have been the worst. >> reporter: she combed shell canyon back and forth in the growing dark. nothing. >> and all that time i kept thinking, why didn't i give her that hug? why dine give her that hug? i'd have given anything just to give her one hug. >> reporter: the setting sun in montana and i woeming c inwyomi glorious thing. that evening for nine discouraged pilots it was terrifying. of course, they were entirely unaware of the disaster and the drama they didn't see on the ground.

coming up -- that ground was here. a forbidden back country, ripe with danger. >> sat here, a feeling in your body makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. >> reporter: but this hunter seeing something even more troubling in the sky. >> so the plane is flying right into a trap? >> yep.

>> reporter: nine small planes about to give up their search for a missing teenage pilot, hope dying with the set sun. >> we all looked until the last light. you know, the absolute last light. >> reporter: so as the minutes tick by, the passage of time changes somehow. doesn't it? >> yes. >> yeah. it felt like days. >> reporter: but here, in the outskirts of a little place calmed douglas, wyoming, an outdoorsman named josh alexander was about to get roped into the same story. >> if you were given your choice of some way to spend two weeks, do whatever you want, what would it be? >> in the mountains hunting somewhere. that's what i live for. >> reporter: josh's friend and colleague nathan coyle feels just the same way. >> i mean, there's places, you can go and not see people for days. >> reporter: kind of sweet spots for you?

>> yeah. very relaxing. very calm. quiet. >> reporter: in august of 2013, josh and nate planned to spend a few days in one of those sweet spots. a place most of us will never see. the absorcas in western wyoming, some of the most remote mountains in the country. the purpose of the trip, scout for big horned sheep. not easy. they live on jagged perches 10,000 feet up and more. they are like ghosts. there for a fleeting moment, then gone again. inhospitable country. >> it's steep, it's rugged. it's all rug. >> reporter: base camp was 9,000 feet up in an abandoned mining town called kirwin. august 19th, they saw five grizzly bears. >> makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. you know? >> reporter: he brought his horses, duke and dirty devil or

double d, the stubborn one. the next day was august 20th. the very same day mckenzie morgan set off from laurel, montana, on her first solo cross country flight. nate and josh were picking their way up a rocky pathway to greybull pass, elevation 1,300. double d didn't like it, tried to go home. slipped and tumbled down the rocky slope, dragging josh with him. >> i couldn't get kicked out of the stirrups fast enough. he went over, smashed my ankle and tore up his front leg also. >> reporter: the horse cut its leg. josh sprained his ankle. but give up? go home? no. way too tough for that. >> even though you're hurting like crazy, your horse is injured. why? >> had to see what's on the other side. lft lfrt [ laughter ] >> didn't ride all that way for nothing. >> reporter: so they pushed on. about 300 yards to the top,

miles and miles of vast isolation around them, in an average year, said park rangers only one or two human beings ever set foot up here. >> very windy. when we got on the fop of thtop pass, probably 35, 40 mile-an-hour wind. >> reporter: just howling around you? >> screaming. >> reporter: but, oh, the sights. a herd of elk. 200 of them. >> i was standing up there looking through my binoculars watching them milk on the bottom and looked at them maybe two minutes. >> reporter: the sound of an airplane broke his concentration. it was a little plane. a cessna 172. >> just kept getting louder and louder and louder. first thing you thought was, why are they down that low? >> reporter: the second thought, alarm. that plane was surrounded by sheer mountain walls on all sides. >> so the plane is flying right into a trap? >> yep. flying right into a rock wall. >> reporter: they heard the

plane throttle out and try to accelerate up and over the lowest peak. >> soon as that plane cleared the top the wind caught it and jerked the right wing of that airplane straight up in the air and basically turned it straight around, and sent it crashing to the ground. >> reporter: what's it like to see that? >> first thing in your head is, man i just watched a plane crash. then it sinks in and hits pope, i just watch add plane crash. and then thoughts start running through your head. what are you going to do? >> reporter: who's's in there? >> who's in there, how many are in there? are they alive? are they dead? can i safely get myself in there to find out, or not. >> reporter: there's a cardinal rule of survival in the wilderness. stick together. they broke it. josh knew first aid and decided he should look for survivors. nate good with gps coordinates. >> i gave nate the gps and the best horse i got and said, you

ride down to camp, and get in the truck and go down to where you can call some help. >> reporter: separated, and then hurrying on that terrain was dangerous. the horses fought to stay together. >> fear was having that horse go down with nate and then nobody would be able to make it to get down and call for help. >> reporter: they slipped and slid. it took nate more than an hour to get to the top of the road. he got in his truck and began a frantic drive down the mountain to reach an area with cell service. >> as i was coming out, come around this corner. and there was a guy standing in the road waving his hands. what in the world? >> reporter: the road was blocked, by a smashed truck hanging halfway over the edge. nate helped the driver move his truck, and went hurdling back down the mountain to get help. meanwhile, back at 12,000 feet, josh was a long half mile from the crash. >> i sat there and glassed that

plane probably five minutes waiting to see if i could see movement in it or if anybody was going to crawl out of it or anything else. and -- nobody got out of it. so i assumed the worst. >> reporter: and then -- as he kept looking at it, something surprising happened. >> then i could see some movement at the plane. >> reporter: was it a person? an animal? too far away to see. he couldn't just hurry over. he had a sprained ankle, injured horse and to get to tra crampaled plane would have it go down first a steep, slippery slope. >> and i had to walk the horse all wait down to the bottom. sinking in up to its knees. in the dirt and rock. >> reporter: carefully he coaxed the limping double d towards the plane. >> down all the switchbacks and then bail off the trail and go down to the crick. >> reporter: he followed the crickbed. then as he worked his way towards the plane, something caught his eye and he looked up, and saw in the distance --

>> a girl. walking in the crick. >> reporter: what was that like to see? >> it was a surprise. it was a shock. coming up -- mckenzie, alive, and telling us her story. >> i knew i would survive

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mckenzie morgan was alive, though stumbling along near mountaintop in god knew where. she didn't expect to be for long. she was very, very alone up here. very cold, and very scared. certain her life was over, she made a video to tell her parents good-bye. >> mom and dad, i -- crashed my plane, and -- i don't know if i'm going to be able to find me out here. >> reporter: and yet, here she is, to tell the astonishing story of the day she crashed on the mountain top and one of america's most isolated places, and lived. >> ah, yeah, thinking about it brings me back. >> reporter: at first she knew nothing and then in a dazed recognition she was alive, and in terrible trouble. little food, no warm clothes. no blanket for the frigid night and no idea where she was. only that she must have messed

up somehow. earlier in the day, when she first set out, everything had seemed so promising. >> i took off, and i was so excited. i didn't have any hitches going to the powell or cody airport. >> reporter: her problems started in greybull, wyoming when she had a hard time finding the airport, tucked away behind a mountain range. >> i used my gps and hold up google found my phone, trying to look for the airport, and i did find it, but it was about ten minutes just of looking for. >> reporter: she landed, ate lunch. refuelled. >> so i was kind of rushing myself to fuel up after getting out there, well, i wasted about 45 minutes here just eating and gassing up and everything. >> reporter: mckenzie texted her instructor bobbi to let her know she was ready for takeoff heading home. >> i was actually super excited for this leg of the trip. i would be over water the whole way. i had something to follow the whole way there. >> reporter: but somehow, just after takeoff, she transposed a

zero in her gps directional setting. instead of going east she flew southwest and straight into some of the tallest peaks in the country. the absorica mountains in wyoming. >> that one simple zero made a huge difference. >> reporter: at first it looked okay. followed the river ars the plan said she should. >> i'm over water. got to be going the right way. >> reporter: supposed to skirt a small mountain. a peak, smoke obscured from the forest fire and then it dawned on her with a thump of anxiety. she was flying too high. >> i was supposed to be flying at a height of 7,500 feet. got to the point i was flyingin 8,500. >> reporter: she knew bobbi wouldn't sender up into the mountains. >> that's not something she would do. something's wrong here. i go to call her. no service. >> reporter: she flew on, alone.

nowhere to call for help. forcing down panic. birly missed very tall trees and then. >> finally it started to open up around me. more space and, thank goodness. >> reporter: relief now? >> almost to the airport. after i get out of this curve, right on my left side. i can just land -- and calm down, and then i'll be able to go home and relax. >> reporter: not quite. >> around that curve -- and it's a dead end with mountains on all sides of me, and my heart dropped. >> reporter: mckengzy had flown straight into a box canyon. mountains towering on all sides. she was trapped, and then weirdly her desperate eye caught something other wordily. >> out of my peripheral vision i see all this movement. there's a huge herd of elk. 200 head of them. >> reporter: saw you come along? >> they heard me and got scared. >> reporter: and then a warning

blared, she was about to stall. her only chance was to accelerate straight down, then pull up and make it over the peak. the ground is rushing at you at this point? >> exactly. at this point i knew i could possibly overcome the mountain in front of me. >> reporter: then a huge blast of wind caught a wing. >> and i knew i was going down. calmly in my mind, i have to land it like a typical landing and i hear this screaming, just loud screaming. oh, my gosh. that's me. like, i didn't realize i was doing it, and in my head i'm totally calm, but -- i was -- i'm just screaming uncontrollably. >> reporter: she's shto pull off a perfect landing on steep slope in a field of rocks. impossible, but no choice. back wheels down first. >> as i brought my nose down the front wheel got caught in the rocks and it flipped the plane upside-do upside-down. >> reporter: just -- like that?

>> yep. like hit, touch and then just flipped me. >> reporter: how long she was out she isn't sure. when she came to? >> hanging upside down thinking, why am i not dead. i am not going to die here. so determined. >> reporter: she was not killed and her upside-down and totaled plane was short of america rack cue louse she was virtually uninjured even more so. unbuckled herself, smashed through the windows. took pictures. maybe embedded in the gps, someone could find her. she could get no signal. they weren't going anywhere. she tried to radio for help. >> my plane is down. like, i'm in the mountains somewhere. can you -- can you find me? and -- there's no reply. i tried twice. >> reporter: she. shed gas near the plane. so she made a risky decision. she would follow the creek and try to walk out. >> i was like, well, i've got to get out of here before this

catching on fire. >> reporter: seems to me you have a pretty lousy chance of being found, but the only one chance, really if you were beside that plane? >> exactly. i knew i wasn't going -- odds i would make it -- and survive that trek -- were very unlikely. >> reporter: 12,000 feet above sea level. hundreds of miles from nowhere. utterly alone, she started walk. when she set out that morning it had ban hot, summer day. she was wearing jeans and a light windbreaker. here in the mountains, night would be bitter cold. she didn't know it, but she was heading down the creek bed right to the spot the hunters had seen five grizzly bears just the day before. >> so at this point, i'd walked about 20 minutes and made a video to my parents. >> mom and dad, i -- crashed my plane, and -- >> it was awful. like, i'm crying and screaming. i just -- i felt so bad. >> reporter: mckenzie morgan understood with an awful clarity, this was very likely

the end after all. coming up -- a mind-boggling coincidence becomes mckenzie's only shot at rescue. >> as soon as i saw him, i xarted streaming, help me, help me. help me. >> and then her flight instructor starts to worry all over again. >> i heard one of my friends say, has anybody let bobbi know yet? i'm like, oh, my god.

mom, and dad, i've crashed my plane, and -- >> reporter: mckenzie morgue hadn't just made a good-bye video on her phone, to tell her parents one last time as she faced her death up here that she loved them. >> and my plan was just, walk until i couldn't walk anymore and maybe if i got low enough, i could climb a tree and sleep in that, or just -- make a spot on the ground for myself. >> reporter: she kept walking. she had sprained her knee in the crash. it slowed her down. >> it was starting to swell. i was just limping a lot. there were rocks everywhere and i kept stumbling over throws. >> reporter: she stumbled on nearly an hour. in the depth of her despair. >> on the top of one of these hills, i see a horse. there's a horse out here.

>> reporter: and then saw there was man with the horse, a kind of scary man, a big, bloodied from his fall, wearing a gun. the hunter, josh alexander -- >> soon as i saw. i started screaming, help me, help me. help me. >> i immediately made her sit down and gather her thoughts and everything. because her adrenaline was rushing. >> reporter: yeah. >> big time. >> reporter: was she clearly upset? >> oh, yeah. i started asking her, her name. her age. where she's from where she was flying to. where she'd come from. just mainly trying to check nor head injury. make sure everything was okay. >> reporter: what were the chances? in all of that empty space, so rarely visited by humans, it was almost beyond mathematical calculation. like two needles finding each other in a very big haystack. >> i asked him where i was. he said, well, you're in titsi,

wyoming. >> reporter: looked at the map. it wasn't even on it. so think unlikely trio, banged up hunter, young woman and horse, limped back down in the dark not knowing what would be waiting for them at the bottom when finally -- >> then it was right at dark, but i could still see through my binoculars, looked in the trailhead parking lot and spotted a sheriff's deputy pickup and nate standing there, looking back at us. >> reporter: after his long disrupted trip down the mountain to get help, josh's buddy nate had made it. >> and i told her, i said, we'll be all right. right there's help. then shep got real emotional again and started to -- >> reporter: started to cry? >> yeah. i think tears of relief. >> reporter: and nate watching them had trouble understanding what he was seeing. this young girl was the pilot? >> i couldn't believe it, and most -- people her age don't

even drive yet, i mean, let alone fly a plane. >> reporter: the sheriff brought mckengzy down to an ambulance that hadn't been able to make it up the mountain. soon as there was cell service, they called mckenzie's parents, sick with worry at home. >> ah -- thank goodness for that call. >> he said, we found your daughter and she's -- she's alive. and then i lost service with him. or it broke out and i said, all right. get your stuff, we're going to cody. >> reporter: mckenzie's flight instructor bobbi was at that moment about to give up and turn towards home. heartbroken, when on her radio she heard something rather terrifying. >> i heard one of my friends say, has anybody let bobbi know yet? i'm like oh, my god. >> reporter: let bobbi know what? >> and i said, i'm on. what's going on? and they said, they found her. she's safe.

what a relief. i just started crying. >> reporter: bobbi, too, headed straight to cody. >> i couldn't get there fast enough. >> reporter: mckenzie's uncle and grandfather flew there, too. >> that was the best moment we could have had. that she was found. and healthy. >> reporter: mary mayer took this photograph. search planes headed home, silhouetted against a smoky sunset to mark the moment. >> it was an unbelievable feeling. >> reporter: and then roughly 12 hours after she took off that morning, mckenzie, her family and her flight instructor were all at the hospital, together, and safe. >> i think until you lay eyes on her and you see that she's just fine, i mean, it was -- beautiful. >> reporter: bobbi got to give mckenzie that hug after all. >> i call her my miracle child. a lot of people said to her, she should go buy a lottery ticket.

>> reporter: her grateful parents able to drive her home later that night. on the way she showed them the good-bye video she made on the mountain. >> i don't know if anyone will be able to find me out here. >> i was like, don't play that again. i had to -- almost went off the road. >> reporter: the next day, the hunters headed home, and encountered yet another person who needed help. a man who slipped on wet rocks and broken his leg badly. and so they made a third rescue, in just two days. just angels are mercy on that trip? >> a mad turn of events there. we never seen one big horn sheep that entire trip. but we decided we there for a reason. it was there to help people. why? i don't know. but everything turned out good. >> reporter: you must be a person with a sense of gratitude these days? >> yes, definitely am. because everyone's like, well, somebody's got a plan for you.

you know? you're right. you're right. so -- i'll make the most of it. >> reporter: mckenzie, by the way, finished high school, and the softball season. got into college, went to prom. and in december, 2013 -- >> all right, honey. >> bye. >> okay. >> she climbed into a little airplane to finish that solo cross country flight. mckenzie morgan -- survivor. and licensed pilot. that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.

the 49 herbs -- >> the 49ers in turmoil. the coach delivers a biting message. good evening. i'm in for jessica aguirre. >> this started out as a special thanksgiving night for the 49ers. turned into a bizarre post-game story involving the team owner. a rare public apology from jed york. within minutes after