A ten-year-old girl was rescued after spending 24 hours lost in the Cascade Mountains. Kittitas County Sheriff Darren Higashiyama said that Shunghla Mashwani was hiking in the woods with her extended family on Sunday (June 5) when they got separated.

"When the family walked back across the river to the trailhead parking area to eat lunch, they noticed Shunghla was missing. Around 20 adults in the group immediately went back and started searching," Higashiyama wrote on Facebook.

After two hours of searching, the adults were unable to find Shunghla and could not call for help because there was no cell service in the remote area. Luckily, they found a passerby with a satellite phone who called 911.

Numerous agencies launched a massive search effort which included ground searchers, drones, K9 units, aircraft, and water rescue teams.

After nearly 24 hours, two of the rescue workers found Shunghla about 1.5 miles south of where she was last seen. Rescuers used an inflatable watercraft to get the Shunghla, who was on the opposite side of the river.

She told authorities that after she got separated from her family, she followed the river. Once it was too dark to continue, she found some trees and slept near them for the night.

Other than a few minor scrapes, Shunghla was otherwise fine.

"She proved an extraordinarily resourceful and resilient 10-year-old," Higashiyama wrote.

Aviation Blog - Jay Ratliff