Two Forest Service Workers Emerge From Montana Wilderness Following Fiery Plane Crash

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) -- Two days after they were reported killed in a plane crash, two U.S. Forest Service employees emerged from the wilderness, astonishing family members who had believed they were dead and baffling rescuers still sifting through the charred wreckage high in the Montana mountains.

Jodee Hogg, 23, of Billings, and Matthew Ramige, 29, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., walked out of Wednesday, nearly 48 hours after the wreck that killed three others, officials said.

The crash scene was above timberline on Mount Liebig, in the Great Bear Wilderness south of Glacier National Park. They were spotted by a motorist on U.S. 2 about six miles from the crash site. The motorist went to a bar in the Essex area and asked the bartender to call for help. They are now recovering in hospitals here and in Seattle.

``You can't believe the elation,'' said Jim Hogg, Jodee's father.

Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont learned there were survivors Wednesday while at the crash site on a mountain south of Glacier National Park. He had been sifting through the burned wreckage and human remains.

``It's just an unbelievable miracle. You look at that crash site, that wreckage, you'd never believe anyone could have survived,'' he said. ``It's incredible, truly incredible.''

He said the aircraft went from more than 100 mph to zero in less than 40 feet.

``Who can survive that?'' Dupont asked. The fire ``literally melted everything.''

The single-engine aircraft under contract to the U.S. Forest Service left Kalispell Monday afternoon on a 30-minute flight to a grass landing strip at Schafer Meadows Guard Station, near the Middle Fork of the Flathead River in the Great Bear-Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

The four workers aboard the plane intended to conduct an annual vegetation inventory and repair telecommunication facilities, the Forest Service said.

It crashed during stormy weather above timberline, but three of those aboard managed to get out of the burning wreckage _ Hogg, Ramige and Ken Good, 58, of Whitefish. Good died of his injuries the first night.

Killed on impact were pilot Jim Long, 60, of Kalispell, and Davita Bryant, 32, of Whitefish. Hogg, Ramige and Bryant all worked for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Station in Fort Collins, Colo., but were assigned to the station's office in Ogden, Utah. Good worked for the Flathead National Forest.

The wreckage was found Tuesday. There were three seatbelts unbuckled, the sheriff said. ``Now, I know why.''

Hogg was listed in stable condition at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Ramige was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was listed in serious condition in intensive care Thursday morning. A hospital spokeswoman said he had a spinal fracture and burns over 20 percent of his body _ on his face, hands and chest.

``I still can't believe it. I can see that he's alive now,'' Ramige's mother, Dr. Wendy Becker, said Thursday morning after visiting her son at the hospital, KOMO-TV reported on its Web site.

In an interview with The Billings Gazette, Jim Hogg said his daughter suffered burns, a sprained ankle and a sore back, but was expected to be released from the hospital in three to four days.

``We were in a total depression this morning. Her twin sister (Kyna) kept saying all along, 'I know she's alive,''' he said. ``Now, she's walking on cloud nine.''

``Can you imagine these families?,'' asked Bob Bryant, father-in-law of victim Davita Bryant. ``They've been told their kids are dead. And now they are resurrected,'' he said in a hospital interview with The (Kalispell) Daily Inter Lake.

Linda Woods of Whitefish, a friend of one victim and survivor Ramige, said she and another person had organized a group to search for survivors but their offer to help was declined Tuesday. ``There were 100 people waiting in Whitefish to do this. It's possible we could have been very useful and saved some people some suffering,'' she told the newspaper.

``Last night, we sat on the couch and cried instead of being out hiking and searching. And we just accepted what we were told,'' she said.

Brian Ladd, who supervises the public bus system in Jackson where Ramige works as a driver in the winter, said Ramige hikes into the backcountry and counts trees for the Forest Service in the summer, sometimes covering an entire square mile, regardless of terrain.

``He did a ton of hiking,'' Ladd said. ``I guess he'd probably be pretty well prepared to walk out.''