i want them to come turn that bad situation into something positive. >> what will you tell the girls when they get older? . i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales, and this is "dateline." >> our daughter chose to go up and fly in an airplane. she was always driven to be perfect. >> my dad pulled up and said mckenzie is missing. >> you think, i am not ready to plan a funeral. >> a teenaged girl out to earn her pilot's license sets out on a solo flight. >> she was well trained. she's capable. >> but something went wrong. >> i started thinking she should

be there by now. >> hours stretched out. her parents frantic. >> i have the eerie feeling, the kind you don't entertain as a parent. >> not where you see yourself, let alone a young girl. >> a search becomes a race against time. >> it got dark, it would add to the chance she'd end up dying. >> 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 a shock. >> hello and welcome to "dateline." it was the big day for the pilot in training, mckenzie morgan. if successful, she'der her pilot's license.

even her flight training could not prepare her for the fight for survival she'd face on the ground. here is keith morrison with "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 wyoming's absaroka mountains. like the overconfident heart of a precocious teenage girl. like the terrified love of a parent when the girl is gone. >> you have no control. you're in god's hands, so to speak. i mean, it was miserable. >> but her? nobody thought it would happen to mckenzie morgan. >> you're just quiet. because there's not a thing that we can do. >> to mckenzie's parents steve and kristy, she was always exceptional, their super-girl. kenzie's the type of kid that started reading at two, two and a half, was speaking in

sentences at a year and a half. she excelled in school. threw a wicked curveball. and had a sixth sense for the outdoors developed elk hunting with her dad. >> she's a great kid. >> but she's always wanted to go off and do the next thing, huh? >> the next thing. do it as good as you can. >> more than anything, mckenzie wanted to fly. frankly, that desire came packaged in her genes. great-grandfather, grandfather, uncles -- like jared hanson -- all pilots. mckenzie's 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 with it too. a lot of people would look at this and say, "god, you really feel okay about letting your daughter go off and fly an airplane at that age?" >> our dater 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 cessna 172, and her grandfather paid for flying lessons. bobbi powers was mckenzie's teacher, had been doing this very thing in and around billings, montana since mckenzie was born. >> that little thing behind you is your ticket to what? >> anywhere i want to go. i fly it to canada. i fly it to mexico. you know, you get to see things that a lot of times that other people are never gonna get to see. >> so 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 right away that mckenzie was a natural, like when she put her in frosted goggles and asked her to fly by instruments only. >> i put her in situations where she couldn't see out the window, and i'd say, "mckenzie where's the airport?" and she'd just shock me because she could point. i'm like, "holy smokes."

>> 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 did awesome. >> and then after three weeks of training, one last test flight, the big one. the cross country solo. the faa insists it be at least five hours, over 150 nautical miles, with stops in three different airports, followed by three landings at a towered airport. in this case, billings, 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, i mean, she was well-trained. she's capable. she was ready. >> and 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. >> a b1 bomber crashed during a routine training mission. >> the day before, a military plane went down nearby, and the

airspace over the vast flatlands 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. yeah, we checked that very closely. >> 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 gonna go, "oh, syrupy old people." but, i was confident, totally confident. >> 30 minutes in, mckenzie texted bobbi from powell, wyoming. first leg, complete. >> how did that go? >> that went well. she was headed to cody. >> cody, wyoming. after about 25 mintues, she landed there.

texted bobbi and her mother that all was well. and then a second little push from fate. though none of them knew it, a huge forest fire had erupted to the west. smoke billowed towards mckenzie's revised flight path. by now, mckenzie was on her way to greybull, wyoming. tiny airport, tucked behind a ridge, hard to see from the air through the smokey haze, white knuckle landing. the message you got was that it wasn't as easy this time? >> right. she let me know, you know, that she got a little disoriented but things went well, and she was on greybull. and she was going to go ahead and taxi over, tie the plane down, take a little break. >> she texted that 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 mckenzie to follow the bighorn river, over the yellowtail dam, make her landings at the

billings airport. and then a final short flight back to laurel, where bobbi was waiting. >> of course i'm excited. now we're -- you know, we're really rolling. we don't have far to go here now. closer to home. >> it was mid-afternoon now. mckenzie's mother hadn't heard from her for awhile and suddenly sensed something off. >> i had that eerie feeling, you know, the kind that you don't entertain as a parent. >> her father, driving to work, felt it too. >> something just wasn't right, and i was an hour out of town. i turned around and came back. >> bobbi expected to hear from mckenzie about 3:00. 3:00 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. >> and now it'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. oh, worst words in the whole world. >> mckenzie morgan seemed to have disappeared. for everyone who cared about her, it's the beginning of a heart stopping odyssey. coming up, as a frantic search gets under way, there's more bad news. >> i asked her what the route was, and my heart just sank. >> and later. >> rough, rugged, horrid

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>> bobbi powers was living a flight instructor's worst nightmare. 17-year-old mckenzie morgan, that natural young flyer, and her special student was just

gone. >> you just start 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 a fire-fighting operation to fuel. >> what did you say? >> i just 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 he said, "give her all the

fuel she wants. just get her her fuel." >> while 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 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. 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 around 4:00, 4:30. and my dad pulled up, and said mckenzie's missing. i'm sorry.

>> and then, finally, they called mckenzie's mom kristy. >> what was that like to get that call? >> the bottom just 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. >> they tried to stay positive. after all, they told themselves, by now a posse of private pilots was taking off, making it's way up in the air to look for her. one of instructor bobbi's group of searchers was "billings gazette" photographer larry mayer, a 30 year flight veteran. >> i asked her what the route was. and, you know, to be honest with you, my heart just sank, because i knew the terrain along the route. and it's not very good terrain. >> such bad terrain, in fact, that larry was carrying an emergency kit he had packed in case he found her alive. >> i put together a sleeping bag, some bottles of water, some granola bars, a handheld radio

and a large caliber handgun because it's grizzly country. >> there's mountain lions. there's, you know, coyotes. it's not where you'd want to see yourself, let alone a young girl. >> brian kjensmo was in his super cub. 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 worst case scenarios playing through their minds. >> 5:00 p.m., mckenzie had been missing over an hour. counting bobbi and her husband, and mckenzie's grandfather, there were nine small planes in the air, scouring the ground. over the radio, they agreed to divide the miles and miles of southern montana and northern wyoming into a grid. >> someone would say i'm going to go look in the carbon basin and someone else would say, i'm

going to look along the north rim of the canyon. >> you know, your head's on a swivel. you're looking, looking, looking. and just hoping and praying that you're going to find that person as quickly as you can. >> the whole time up there in the search thinking in the back of your mind, thinking that was always a concern. >> they raced the clock. sundown 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, you know, it would just 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. >> then one of the search pilots catches sight of something on the ground. >> my first reaction was, oh, my god. >> when "dateline" continues. i didn't believe it. again. ♪ ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? ♪

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>> mckenzie morgan's parents were frantic, waiting for word of their missing daughter. what could they do? >> i was, like, "well, let's ping the cell phone. let's see where she last made her call." >> they asked the police to pull her phone record, eventually learned she last used her phone at 2:30, half an hour before she was due back in billings. after that, nothing. then they looked at the gps coordinates of the call. and, oh no.

>> it was four miles, four, five miles south of cody. it was, like, that makes no -- i couldn't, in my head, fathom. i was, like, "well, that makes no sense." it's a 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. mckenzie was way too close to the mountains. >> how could she be here? you know, i'd watch her flying skills. i was totally confident that there was just 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. no, there's not an airplane sitting at 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 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 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 lengthened in the deepening afternoon. the forest fire's smokey 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. i mean, it was miserable. i'm not going to lie. >> up in the air, they kept looking. suddenly, larry mayer spotted a crashed plane right beneath him. >> i guess i was just 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." >> 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 know, you're running out -- number one, you're running out of time. it's getting dark. this is probably what i'm going to find someplace up here. >> they fought to focus through the evening shadows. brian, in his super cub, equipped to fly low and slow, skimmed the trees and rocky peaks.

>> 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. >> by 8:00 p.m., mckenzie was five hours overdue. the rescue pilots were tired, and running out of fuel and daylight. and then the authorities called. the military would take over, the man said. would 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 mountains. >> rough, rugged, horrid terrain. out of all the wrong ways she could've gone, it would've been the worst. >> she combed shell canyon, back and forth in the growing dark. nothing. >> in all that time i kept thinking, "why didn't i give her

that hug? why didn't i give her that hug?" i'd have 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 the drama they didn't see on the ground. >> coming up, that ground was here, a forbidden back country, ripe with danger. >> it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. >> this hunter sees something even more unsettling in the sky when "dateline" continues. is a game changer. it's going to let the dentist offer their patient sensitivity relief in 3 days. say, over the course of a weekend,

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secretary of state mike pompeo says return yeah is violating sanctions against north korea, citing what he calls credible reports of violation. he also says he's optimistic north korea will denuclearize. in california, windy hot effort will complicate of 40s to battle wildfires. two fires have destroyed 41 homes and threatened thousands more. now back to "dateline." >> welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. out over the western skies fellow pilots were searching for mckenzie morgan. no one was sure what happened to her aircraft. was she seriously injured or even worse? returning to our story, here is keith morrison. >> nine small planes were about to give up their search for a missing teenaged pilot, hope dying with the setting sun.

>> we all looked until the last light. you know, the absolute last light. >> so as the minutes tick by, the passage of time changes somehow, doesn't it? >> it does. >> yeah. it felt like days. >> but, here, on the outskirts of a little place called 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? >> i'd be in the mountains hunting somewhere. it's what i live for. >> josh's friend and colleague nathan coyle feels just the same way. >> there's places that, yeah, you can go and not see people for days. >> those are kind of the sweet spots for you? >> yeah. they're very relaxing, 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 of the trip? to scout for big horn sheep. not easy. they live on jagged perches 10,000 feet up, and more, they're like ghosts, there for a fleeting moment, then gone again. inhospitable country. >> it's steep. it's rugged. it's all rock. >> base camp was 9,000 feet up in an abandoned mining town called kirwin. on the first day, august 19th, they saw five grizzly bears. >> it puts that eerie feeling in your body, makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, you know. >> josh brought his horses -- duke, the palomino, 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 12,500. double d didn't like it, tried to turn and go home and, in his thrashing, 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. >> the horse cut its leg. josh sprained his ankle. but, give up, go home? no, way too tough for that. even though you're hurt like 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. miles and miles of vast isolation around them. in an average year, said park rangers, only one or two human beings ever sets foot up here. >> it was very windy. when we got on the top of that

pass, it was probably 35, 40 mile-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 my binoculars, watching them elk in the bottom. and i looked at them for maybe two minutes. >> the sound of an airplane broke his concentration. it was a little plane, a cessna 172. >> it just kept getting louder and louder and louder. the first thing you thought was, "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, then watched it try to accelerate up and over the lowest peak. but 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? >> the first thing in your head was, "man, i just watched a plane crash." and then it sinks in and hits, "oh, i just watched a plane crash." and then thoughts start running through your head. what are you going to do? >> who's in there? >> you know, 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? >> there's a cardinal rule of survival in the wilderness, stick together. they broke it. josh knew first aid, decided he should look for survivors. nate was good with gps coordinates. >> so 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. >> but separating, 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. >> 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 to an area with cell service. >> and as i was coming out, i come around this corner. and there was a guy standing in the road, waving his hands. and i was, like, "what in the world?" >> the road was blocked by a smashed truck hanging halfway over the edge of the road. nate helped the driver move his truck, and then went hurtling back down the mountain to get help. and meanwhile, back at 12,000 feet, josh was a long half mile from the crash. >> i sat there and glassed that plane for 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. >> and then, 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 ankle, an injured horse. and to get to that crumpled 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 in up to its knees in the dirt and rock. >> carefully, he coaxed the limping double d toward the plane. >> down all the switchbacks and then 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.

>> telling us her story. >> i knew the odds i would survive that were very unlikely. >> when "date lean" continues.

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freaky fresh. freaky fast. jimmy john's. freak yeah. >> mckenzie morgan was alive, though, stumbling along near a mountain-top in god knew where, she didn't expect to be for long. she was very, very alone up here. very cold, very scared. certain her life was over, she

made a video to tell her parents goodbye. >> mom, dad. i crashed my plane. i don't know if anyone will find me out here. >> and yet, here she is to tell the astonishing story of the day she crashed on a mountaintop in one of america's most isolated places and lived. >> oh, yeah, even just thinking about it just brings me back. >> at first, she knew nothing. and then, in a dazed recognition that she was alive and in 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 had seemed so promising. >> i took off, and i'm just so excited. and i didn't have any hitches going to powell or cody airport. >> 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 pulled up google earth on my phone, just trying to look for the airport. and i did find it. but it was about ten minutes just of looking for it. >> she landed, ate lunch, refueled. >> so i was kind of rushing myself, after i fueled up, to get out of there because i was like, "well, 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 take-off, heading home. >> i was actually super-excited for this leg of the trip because i was going to be over water the whole way. i had something to follow the whole way there. >> but somehow, just after takeoff, she transposed a zero in her gps directional heading. so instead of going northeast towards home, she flew southwest, and straight into some of the tallest peaks in the country, the absaroka mountains in wyoming. >> that one simple zero made a huge difference. >> but at first it looked okay.

she followed a river, as the plan said she should. >> i was like, i'm over water. i've got to be going the right way. >> she was supposed to skirt a small mountain next, and sure enough, there was a peak, its top obscured by smoke 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. and it got to the point where i was flying at 8,500 and i just -- >> and the mountains were still up there. >> still above me. >> mckenzie knew bobbi wouldn't have sent her there, into the mountains. >> that just not something she would do. something has to be wrong here. so, 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 around me. there is more space and it's, like, oh thank goodness, i'm -- >> relief now. >> i'm almost to the airport. after i get out of this curve, it'll be right on my left side. i can just land and calm down, and then i'll be able to go home

and relax. >> not quite. >> rounded that curve and it's a dead end with mountains on all side 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 otherworldly. >> out of my peripheral vision, i see all this movement. and i look over there, and there is this huge herd of elk, like about 200 head of them. >> they saw you come along. >> they heard me, and they got scared. >> 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 now. >> exactly. at this point, i know that i could possibly overcome this mountain that's in front of me. >> and 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, like, "okay, i have just got to land this like a typical landing," and i hear this screaming, just loud screaming. and then i realize, "oh my gosh, that's me." like, i didn't realize i was doing it. and then in my head, i am totally calm. but i'm just screaming uncontrollably. >> she'd have to pull off a perfect landing on a steep slope in a field of rocks. impossible, but no choice. back wheels down first. >> and then, as i brought my nose down, the front wheel got caught in the rocks and it flipped the plane upside down. >> just, pfff, like that? >> yup, like, hit, touch and then just flip me. >> how long she was out, she isn't sure. but when she came to -- >> and i'm hanging upside down. i'm, like, "why am i not dead right now?" i just -- "i'm not going to die in here." like, i said that out loud. i was just so determined. >> that she was not killed in her upside down and totaled plane was little short of miraculous. that she was virtually

uninjured, even more so. she unbuckled herself, smashed through the front window. took these pictures, tried to text them. maybe the gps coordinates embedded in the photos would help someone find her. but she could get no signal. they weren't going anywhere. so she tried to radio for help. >> i was, like, "great falls radio 516 mike alpha. my plane is down." like, "i'm in the mountains somewhere. can you find me?" and that -- and there was no reply. and 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, well, i've got to get out of here before this catches on fire. >> it seems to me you had a pretty lousy chance of being found, that the only one chance, really, was if you were beside that plane. >> exactly. i knew i wasn't going -- the odds that i would make it and survive that trek were very unlikely. >> 12,000 feet above sea level, hundreds of miles from nowhere,

utterly alone. she started walking. when she'd set out that morning, it had been a hot summer day, she was 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. >> so, at this point i'd walked about 20 minutes, and i made a video to my parents. >> mom and dad, i crashed my plane. >> it was awful. like, i'm crying and screaming and i just -- i felt so bad. >> 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 started screaming help me, help me, help me. >> and then her frighten struck tore starts to worry all over

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>> mom and dad, i crashed my plane. and i don't know if anybody will be able to find me out here, and i just want to let -- >> reporter: mckenzie 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. >> 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 those. >> reporter: she stumbled on for nearly an hour. and then, in the depths of her despair -- >> i get on the top of one of these hills, and i see this horse. and i was like, "there is a horse out here." >> reporter: and then she saw, there was a man with the horse. a kind of scary man, big, bloodied 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 adrenalin was rushing 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 come from. just mainly trying to check for a head injury. you know, make sure everything was okay. >> reporter: 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 haystack. >> i asked him where i was. he's like, "well, you're in meeteetse, wyoming." so, like, "well, i don't know where that is." >> reporter: they looked at her map. meeteetse wasn't even on it. and so this unlikely trio, a banged up hunter, a banged up pilot, and a banged up horse, limped down the treacherous mountainside 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 binoculars. so i looked in the trailhead

parking lot and spotted a sheriff's deputy's pickup and nate standing there. and they were looking back at us. >> reporter: 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 is help." and then, she got real emotional again and -- >> reporter: started to cry. >> then -- yeah. i think it was 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. most people her age don't even drive yet. i mean, let alone fly a plane. >> reporter: the sheriff brought mckenzie 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 mckenzie's parents steve and kristy, sick with worry at home. >> oh, 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, kristy. we're going to cody." >> reporter: mckenzie's flight instructor bobbi was at that moment about to give up, and turn toward home, heartbroken, when on her radio, she heard something rather terrifying. >> i heard one of my friends say, "has anybody let bobbi know yet?" and i'm like, "oh, my god." >> reporter: let bobbi know what? >> and i said, "i'm on. what's goin' 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: larry mayer took this photograph, search planes heading home silhouetted against

a smokey 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 that 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 were able to drive mckenzie home later that night. on the way, she showed them the goodbye video she'd made up on the mountain. >> i don't know if anyone is going to be able to find me out here. >> i was, like, "don't play that again." i mean, i had almost went off the road. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: you're 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. >> reporter: you must be a person with a sense of gratitude these days. >> yeah. definitely am. because everyone's like, "somebody's got a plan for you." it's like, "you know what? 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. good bye. >> reporter: she climbed into a little airplane to finish that solo cross country flight.

mckenzie 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. >> i'm natalie morales. >> this is "dateline." >> he married the woman of his dreams, beautiful and sweet. >> she was just angelic. >> and was folded into her tight-knit family headed by an elderly, religious matriarch. >> you were part of their family or you weren't. together they had a little girl, sydney. >> their view, sydney was their property. >> one day he went to pick up his little girl for a visit and was never seen alive again. >> he died right there.