the children. >> it's complicated. >> yup. >> is this created a rift between the two of you? >> yes. >> >> surely not easy going for the children of dave and debbie hawk. >> we do the best we can. >> that's all for this edition offlight.

>> here's keith morris son it "into the wild." >>. >> there are places in the american west that quite rightly inspire fear, along with awe. like the wild haunts of grizzlies in the mountains. like the heart of a teen-aged girl, like the terrified love of a parent. the girl is gone. >> you have no control. you're in god's hands so to speak. >> but her? nobody thought it would happen to mckenzie morgan. >> you're just quiet. there's not a thing we can do. >> hi. >> to mckenzie's parents, she was always exceptional. their super girl. >> sheaf' the type of kid that started reading at 2, 2 and a

half. speaking in sentences at a year and a half. >> she excelled in school, through a wicked curveball. the. >> she was a great kid. >> but she's always wanted to go off and do the nextening. >> the next thing. do it as good as you can. >> more than anything, mckenzie wanted to fly. frankly that desire came packaged in the jeans, grandfather, uncles. her uncle and grandpa got together. >> we talked, and said that if she wants to do it, let's help her out. >> her parents were fine. >> a lot of people would look at this and say god, you really feel okay? >> our daughter chose to go up and fly in an airplane. i was more scared of her driving than flying. >> when mckenzie was 17, her

uncle loaned her his cesna 172 and her grandfather paid for flying lessons, bobbi powers was her teacher and had doing this since mckenzie was born. >> that thing behind you is your ticket to what? >> anywhere i want to go. i fly it to canada, i fly it to mexico. you get to see things that a lot of times that other people are never going to get to see. >> when the girl showed up at her flight school in nearby laurel in august 2013 brimming with confidence, bobbi jumped right in. >> she could see mckenzie was a natural like when she put her in frosted goggles. >> i put her in situations where she couldn't see out the window and i'd say mckenzie, where's the airport. she would shock me.

>> when the time came for her to fly solo, bobbi didn't worry. >> how did she do in that first one? >> she did great. she was awesome. >> and then, after three weeks of training, one last test flight, the cross-country solo. the faa insisted at least 5 hours over 150 nautical miles with stops in three different airports followed by three landings. in this case, billing montana, a challenge of course, but if mckenzie was confident, and she was, well then, so were her parents. >> it's not that she just was sent up in an airplane. she was well trained. she escapable. she was ready. >> and so, august 20, mckenzie left home early and her proud mom took a picture. and then, at the airport she encountered a little push from fate. >> a b-1 bomber crashed during a routine training mission.

>> the day before a military plane went down nearby and the airspace over the vast flat lands to the east was temporarily closed. they could have put off the test. they decided not to. >> because the weather was good, the winds aren't too strong. all the conditions, you know, you want to make sure they're good. we checked that very closely. >> so bobbi and mckenzie plotted a modified trip with stops at little airports over the state line in wyoming. the around 10:00 a.m., checks complete, mckenzie climbed into the cockpit. i. >> i wanted to give her a hug in the worst way. then i thought i'll give her a hug on the day we finish. that -- i was confident. totally confident. >> 30 minutes in, mckenzie tested bobbi from wyoming, first leg complete. >> she was headed to cody.

>> cody, wyoming. after about 25 minutes she landed and text ed them. and then a second push. though none of them knew it, a huge forest fire was is there. smoke billowed to her revised flight path. on her way to greybull airport. hard to see through the air. white knuckle landing. >> the message you got was it wasn't as easy. >> right. she let me know she got a little disoriented but things went well and she was on greybull and was going to go ahead and taxi over. >> she tested she ate lunch, refueled and because one runway was closed for repairs, she used an alternate runway, heading in a different direction. still, the last leg was the easiest. the flight plan called for her to follow the big horn river

over the yellow tail dam, make landings at the billings airport and a final short flight back to laurel. >> of course i'm excited. we're really rolling. don't have if a are to go here now. closer to home. >> it was mid afternoon. mckennedy mckenzie's mother hadn't heard from her in a while and suddenly sensed something off. >> i had that eerie feeling. >> her father driving to work felt it too. >> something just wasn't right, and so now we're out of town. i turned around and came back. >> bobbi expected to hear from mckenzie about 3:00. 3 came and went. she busied herself, stayed close to the phone and that went on, tick, tick, tick. >> yes. >> when did you start to worry? >> about 3:15. i started thinking, she should be there by now. >> bobbi called the billings tower. no one had heard from mckenzie.

>> you try to think the best. she's landed somewhere. she's safe. i'll hear from her. but nothing. >> 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 is past due. i just want you to know. in five seconds, we will declare her missing. worst words in the whole world. >> mckenzie morgan seemed to have disappeared, and for everyone who cared about her, it's the beginning of a heart stopping odyssey. >> coming up, as a frantic search gets underway, there's nor bad news. >> i asked her what the route was and my heart sank. >> later. >> sufficient, rugged, horrid

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bobbi powers was living a fright instructor as worst nightmare. 17-year-old mckenzie morgan,

that natural young flier and special student was just gone. >> just started thinking what did i do wrong. did i miss something? i didn't want to admit this is real. >> but it was. no time for second-guessing. >> i said i have my airplane here. i'll be off the ground in 15 minutes. i'll be looking for her. >> 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 operation. >> they were running low, said the manager. they had their own charter and the fire fighting operation to fuel. >> what did you say? >> i looked at 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 said give her all the fuel she wants. >> while they were fuelling 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 are airborne. >> my husband said you have to call the parents. 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. the i called her grandfather. >> the pilot. >> yes. >> and i said mckenzie's missing. and he said, i will be in the airplane in 15 minutes. >> mckenzie's grandpa drove to where her uncle jared was working. >> it was aren't 4:00, 4:30 and

my dad pulled up, and said mckenzie's missing. sorry. >> and then finally, they called mckenzie's mom, kristy. >> what was that like to get that call. >> the bottom drops out. you have the tendency to go dark for a second and think i'm no the ready to plan a funeral. >> they tried to stay positive, after all, they told themselves a posse of private pilots was taking off making its way up to look for her. one of the group of searchers was larry mayer. i asked her what the route was. my heart sank because i knew the terrain along the route and it's not very good terrain. >> such bad terrain in fact the larry was carrying an emergency kit he packed in case he found her alive. >> i put together a sleeping

bag, bottles of water, granola bars, a hand held radio and a large caliber handgun because it's grizzly country. >> mountain lions, coyotes, it's not where you'd want to see yourself, let alone a young girl. >> brian was in his super cup. he's 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 that was in the air had worse case scenarios playing through their minds. >> 5:00 p.m. mckenzie has been missing over an hour. there were nine small planes in the car scouring the ground. >> want to go over to 112275? over the radio they agreed to turn the miles into a grid. >> someone would say i'm going to go look at the basin.

someone else, i'm going to go look along the north rim of the canyon. >> most of these pie lots had been an searches before, found plane wrecks but rarely sbooifers. >> the whole time up there the search think in the back of your mind, it was always a concern. >> they raced the block. sun down was 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, it would just add -- really add to the 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 that makes no sense. >> and then, one of the search pilots catches sight of something on the ground. >> my first reaction was oh, my god. >> when "dateline" continues.

mckenzie morgan's parness were frantic, waiting for word of their missing daughter. what could they do? >> i was like ping the cell phone to see where she last maid a call. >> they asked the police to pull the phone record eventually learning she last used the phone at 2:30, half an hour before due in billings.

then looked at the gps coordinates. >> it was four miles or four or five miles south of cody. i couldn't in my head fathom. i was like that makes no sense it's 180 degrees the wrong way. >> 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. she was way too close to the mountains. >> how could she be here. ? i watched her flying skills. i was totally confident there was no way she would become this confused. >> mckenzie's uncle and grandfather moved their search to the area the ping came from. still no sign of mckenzie. >> not a single searcher saw a clue anywhere. >> there's not an airplane

sitting at fort smith, not greybull. no, she didn't go back to cody. she hasn't arrived back in laurel. >> mckenzie's plane like all such planes was equipped with an emergency beacon, an elt, which should go over in a crash. but there was no signal from any elt. >> what did that make you think? >> that she's safe. if her elt was going off, they'd pick up the signal and we could find her. so, you're thinking, okay, this is a positive. >> 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. >> shadows lengthen in the deepening afternoon. the forest fire's smokey tail

blurred the ground beneath them. mckenzie's family, all they had to hang on to was knowledge that the searcher the wouldn't quit. >> was there sole las in that? no. the it was miserable. i'll not going to lie. >> up in the air, they septemke looking. suddenly larry mayer spotted a crashed plane right beneath him. i guess i was startled. >> brian saw it too. >> if tis reaction was oh, my god i found her. >> but he hadn't. it was for 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 time, it's getting dark. this is probably what i'm going to find some place up here. >> they fought to focus through the evening shadows. brian and his super cub equipped to fly low and slow skimmed the trees and rocky area.

>> you get into a place called black canyon which is vertical cliff walls and black timber down on the bottom of it that it's like finding a needle in a haystack there. >> by 8:00 p.m. nk ken zi was five hours overdue, the rescue pilots were tired and running out of fuel and daylight. >> the authorities called. we have passed along the search and rescue process to the air force at this time. >> the military would take over. the man said they had send out a team in the morning and in a few minutes they would be ordered out of the air. >> bobbi had one more area to search. shell canyon. >> rough, rugged, horrid terrain. out of all the wrong ways she could have gone, it would have been the worst.

>> she combed shell canyon back and forth in the growing dark. nothing. >> all that time i kept thinking why didn't i give her that hug? why didn't i give her that hug? i had given anything to give her just one hug. >> the setting sun in montana and wyoming can be a glorious thing, but that evening for nine discouraged pilots, it was terrifying. but of course they were entirely unaware of the disaster and drama they didn't see on the ground. >> coming up, that ground was here, a forbidden back country rife with danger. >> it puts that eerie feeling in your body. >> but this hunter sees something more unsettling in the sky. >> so the plane is flying right into a trap. >> yup. >> when "dateline" continues.

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i'm dara brown with the stop

stories. we have breaking news an amtrak train has collided with a freight train near columbia south carolina. several passenger cars derailed and undetermined amount of injuries. we will keep you posted. in minneapolis local and federal authority the are providing a blanket of security for tonight's super bowl. now, back to "dateline." > . >> welcome back to "dateline." out over the western skies fellow pilot the were searching for the aviator mckenzie morgan, no one was sure what happened to her aircraft, was she seriously injured or even worse? returning to our story, here's keith morrison. >> nine small planes were about to give up their search for a missing teenage pilot. >> we all looked until the last

light. the absolute last light. >> so as the minutes tick by, the passage of time changes somehow. >> yes. it felt like days. >> but here, in the outskirts of a little place called douglas, wyoming, an outdoorsman jammed josh alex ander was about to ge roped into the same story. >> if you've given a choice to do anything. >> id ebe in the mountains somewhere. that's what i live for. >> josh's friend feel the the same way. >> there's places can you go and not see people for days. >> that's kind of the sweet spots for you. >> very relaxes, very calm. quiet. >> 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 absarokas in western wyoming, some of the most remote and spectacular mountains in the country. the purpose? to scout for big horn sheep. not easy. they live on jacked perches. like ghosts for a fleeting moment and then gone again. inhospitable country. >> on the first day, august 19, they saw five grizry bears. >> put that is eerie feeling in your body, makes the hair stand up and the back of her neck. >> josh brought his horse, duke, the pal low mean nor and double d, the tub born one. >> the next day was august 20:

nate and josh were picking their way up a rocky path. double d didn't like it. the he tried to done and go home. in his thrashing slipped and stumbled. >> i couldn't get kicked out of the stirrups fast enough. he went over and smashed my ankle and tore up his front leg also. >> josh sprained his ankle. but give up? go home? no. way too tough for that. >> even though you're crazy and your horse is injured, why? >> had to see what's on the other side. >> didn't ride all that way for nothing. >> so they pushed on. about 300 yards to the top, mile the and miles of vast isolation around them. in an average year, said park ranger, only one or two human beings ever set foot up here. >> very windy. when we got to the top of the

pass, it was probably 35, 40 miles an hour wind. >> just howling around you. >> screaming. >> but oh, the sights. like a herd of elk, 200 of them. >> i was standing up there looking through the binoculars watching the elk in the bomb om bottom. >> the sound of an airplane broke his concentration. it was a little plane, a cesna, 172. >> it just kept getting louder and louder. first thing you thought why are they down that low. >> the second thought was alarm. that plane was surrounded by sheer mountain walls on all sides. >> so the plane is flying right into a trap. >> yup. flying right into a rock wall. >> they heard the plane throttle up and watched it try to accelerate up and over the lowest peak. >> but, as soon as that plane cleared the top, the wind caught it and just 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. >> what's it like to see that? >> first thing in your head is man, i just watched a plane crash. and then it sinks in and hits. oh, i just watched a plane crash. and thoughts start running through your head, what are you going to do? >> who's in there. >> who's in there? how many are in there. are they alive? dead? can i safely get fiself in there to find out or not. >> as 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 was 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 for help. >> but separated and then hurrying on the terrain was dangerous.

the horses fought to stay together. >> the fear was that horse going down with nate and nobody would be make it. >> they slipped and slid. it took nate more than an our to get to the top of the road. he got in his truck and. >> there was a guy standing in the road waving his hands. i said what in the world? >> the road was blocked by a smashed truck hanging half way over the edge. nate helped the driver move the truck and went hurtling back down the mountain to get help. meanwhile, back at 12,000 feet josh was a long half mile from the crash. >> i said there awaiting to see if i could see movement in the plane or anybody crawl out our anything else and nobody got out of it. i assumed the worse.

as he kept looking at it, something surprising happened. >> then i could see some movement at the plane. >> was it a person? an animal? too far away to see. he couldn't just hurry over. he had a sprained angle, an injured horse and to get to that crumbled plane he'd have to go down first a steep slippery slope. >> i had to walk the horse all the way down to the bottom sinking into its knees in the dirt and rock. >> carefully he coaxed the limping double d to the plane. >> down all the switch backs, bail off the trail and go down to the creek. >> he followed the creek bed. and then, as he worked his way toward the plane, something caught his eye. and he looked up, and saw in the distance. >> a girl. walking in the creek. >> 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 the odds i would survive that were very unlikely. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ so probably take it at night. and if you have any questions, the instructions are here in spanish as you requested. gracias. ♪ at walgreens, how we care will change over time, but why we care remains the same treating everyone with the care and attention they deserve. walgreens. trusted since 1901.

mckenzie morgan was alive though stumbling along a mountain top in good knew where, she didn't expect to be alone for long. she was very alone and cold and scared. certain her life was over, she

made a video to tell her parents good-bye. >> mom, and dad, i crashed my plane. i don't know if anyone will be able to find me out here. >> 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. the. >> oh, just thinking about it brings me back. >> at first she knew nothing and in a dazed recognition that she was alive, and a terrible trouble. she had 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 seemed so promising. >> i took off and i was just so excited. i didn't have any hitches going to powell or cody airport. >> her problem started in greybull, wyoming when she had a

hard time finding the airport tucked behind a mountain range. >> i used my gps and tried to look for the airport. i did find it but it was 10 minutes of looking for it. >> she landed, ate lunch, refueled. >> i was kind of pushing myself after i fuelled up to get out of there because i was like i wasted about 45 minutes here just eating and gassing up and everything. >> mckenzie texted her instructor bobbi powers to let her know she was ready for takeoff. >> i was super excited for this e leg of the trip because i was over water the whole way. >> somehow, after takeoff she transposed a zero in the gps directional heading. she flew southwest and strayed into the mountains. >> that zero made a huge difference. >> at first is looked okay. see followed the river as the

plan said she should. >> i am over the water. i've got to be going the right way. >> she was supposed to skirt a small mountain. sure enough, there was a peak, its top obscured by smoke. then it dawned z on her with a thumb of of anxiety, thee was flying too high. >> it got point i was flying at 8500. >> mckenzie knew bobbi wouldn't have sent her there. >> something has to be wrong here. i go to try to call her. there's no service. >> she flew on, alone, no way to call for help. forcing down the rising panic. she barely missed some very tall trees. and then. >> finally, it started to open up. there's more space. it's like oh thank goodness. >> relief now. >> i'm almost to the airport. after oi get out of this curve it will be on my left side.

i can just land and calm down and then i'll be able to go home and relax. >> not quite. >> around that curve, and it's a dead-end with mountains on all sides of me. and my heart dropped. >> mckenzie had flown straight into a box canyon, mountains towering on all sides. she was trapped. and then weirdly her desperate eye caught something. >> i saw all this movement and look over there and there's this huge herd of elk. like about 200 head of them. >> so you -- >> they heard me and got scared. >> and then a warning blaired. she was about to stall. her only chance was to accelerate straight down and pull up and make it over the peak. >> the ground is rushing at you now. >> exactly. at this point, i know that i could possibly overcome this mountain that's in front of me. >> then a huge blast of wind caught a wing. >> and i know i'm going down.

and while in my head i was thinking calmly and okay i grotgot to land this like a typical landing and i hear this screaming and i realize 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 just -- i'm just screaming uncontrollab uncontrollab uncontrollably. >> she'd have to pull off a landing in the field of rocks. impossible, but no choice. the wheels down first. >> as i brought my nose down, the front wheel got caught in the rocks and flipped the plane upside down. >> just like that. >> yup. hit, touch and then just flipped me. >> how long she was out, she isn't sure, but when she came to. >> i'm hanging upside down. i'm like why am i not dead right now. i'll not going to die in here. i said that out loud. i was so determined. >> but she was not killed in her upside down and totalled plane was facility short of miraculous

that she was virtually uninjured even more so. she unbuckled herself, took these pictures, maybe the gps coordinates would help someone find her but she could get no signal. they weren't going anywhere. so she tried to radio for help. >> it's like great falling radio, 516 my plane is down. i'm not plomountains somewhere. can you find me. the and then there's no reply. i tried twice. >> she smelled gas near the plane. so she made a risky decision. she would follow the creek and try to walk out. >> i was like i've got to get out of here before this catches on fire. >> it seems to me you had a pretty lousy chance to be found by the only one chance really is if you were beside the plane. >> exactly. i knew i wasn't --hedds i would make it and survive that trek wer very unlikely. >> 12,000 feet above sea level,

hundreds of miles from nowhere, utterly alone, she started walking. when she set out that morning it was a hot summer day. wearing jeans and a light windbreaker, but 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. >> at this point i walked about 20 minutes and i made a video to my parents. >> mom and dad, i scratched cra plane. >> it was awful. i was crying and screaming and felt so bad. >> she 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 started screaming. i was like 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. >> when "dateline" continues. smile honey this thing is like... first kid ready here we go by their second kid, every parent is an expert and... ...more likely to choose luvs, than first time parents. live, learn and get luvs the red one is more haribogooder to me cos it tastes like berries. they're really squishy. and then i'm gonna fly it in to my mouth. ♪ kids and grown ups love it ♪o ♪ the happy world of harib♪

♪ mom and dad, i've crashed my plane and -- >> mackenzie morgan had just made a goodbye video on her phone to tell her parents one last time as she faced her death up here that she loved them.

>> 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. >> 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 those. >> she stumbled on for nearly an hour, and then in the depths of her despair -- >> i get on top of one much these hills and i see this horse, and i was like there is a horse out here. >> and then she saw there was a man with the horse, a kind of scary man. big, bloodies from his fall, wearing a gun. the hunter, josh alexander. >> as soon as i saw him i started screaming, i was like, help me, help me, help me. >> i immediately, you know, made her sit down and gather her thoughts and everything because her adrenaline was rushing, big

time. >> was she clearly upset? >> oh, yeah. >> yeah. >> i started asking her her name, her age, where she's from, where she was flying to, where she come from. just mainly trying to check for head injury, you know, make sure everything was okay. >> what were the chances? in all that empty space so rarely visited by humans, it was almost beyond mathematical calculation, like two needles finding each other in a very big hay stack. >> i asked where i was. he was like, well, you're in matizzi, wyoming. >> they looked at the ma'am. it wasn't even on it. this unlikely trio, a banged up hunter, a banged up pilot and a banged up horse, limped down the treacherous mountain side in the gathering 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

bin oculars. i looked in the trail head parking lot and spotted a sheriff's deputy's pickup and nate standing there and they were looking back at us. >> after his long-interrupted trip down the mountain to get help, josh's buddy nate had made it. >> i told her, i said, we'll be all right, right there's help. then she got really motional again and -- >> started to cry? >> yeah. i think it was tears of relief. >> and nate watching them had trouble understanding what he was seeing. this young girl was the pilot? >> i couldn't believe it. most people her age don't even drive yet, i mean let alone fly a plane. >> the sheriff brought mackenzie down to an ambulance that hadn't been able to make it up the mountain. as soon as there was cell service the sheriff called mackenzie's parents, steve and christie, stick with worry at home. >> thank goodness for that call. >> he said, we found your

daughter and she's alive and then i lost service with him or it broke out. and i said, all right, get your stuff, christie, we're going to cody. >> mackenzie's flight instructor bobbie was at that moment about to give up and turn toward home heart broken when on her radio she heard something rather terrifying. >> i heard one of my friends say, has niblanybody let bobbiew yet. i'm like, oh, my good. >> let bobbie 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. >> bobbie too headed straight to cod cody. >> i couldn't get there fast enough. >> mackenzie's uncle and grandfather flew there, too. >> that was the best moment that you could have, that she was fo and healthy. >> larry mayer took this

photograph, search planes headed home silhouetted against a smoky sunset to mark the moment. >> it was an unbelievable feeling. >> and then roughly 12 hours after she took off that morning, mackenzie, 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 -- it was beautiful. >> bobbie got to give mackenzie that hug after owl. >> i call her my miracle child. a lot of people said to her she should go buy a lottery ticket. >> her grateful parents were able to drive mackenzie home later that night. on the way, she showed them the goodbye video she made on the moment. >> i don't know if anybody will be able to find me out here. >> i was like, don't play that again. i almost went off the road. >> the next day the hunters headed home and encountered yet another person who needed help, a man who had slipped on wet

rocks and broken his leg badly. and so they made a third rescue in just two days. >> just angels of mercy on that trip. >> mad turn of events there. we never seen one big horn sheep that entire trip. but we decided we were there for a reason. it was there to help people. why? i don't know. but everything turned out good. >> you must be a person with a sense of gratitude these days. >> yeah, definitely am. because everyone is like, well, somebody's got a plan for you. i was like, you know what? your arigh you're right, you're right, so i'll make the most of it. >> mackenzie, by the way, finished high school and the softball season, got into college, went to prom. and in december 2013 -- >> all right, honey. >> bye. >> bye. >> she climbed into a little airplane to finish that solo

cross country flight. mackenzie morgan, survivor and licensed pilot. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. ♪ i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> how do you feel that so many people think steven avery is innocent? >> it is emotional. they made him look like he was just a nice person. what's happening is wrong. the evidence is beyond over w l overwhelming. >> i'm innocent. >> the story gripped the nation. >> so many americans have learned about it. >> it is being heard by people around the