A four-time Olympian survived a plane crash in Michigan on Sunday. Her & members of her family suffered broken bones and burns in the crash. The couple’s puppy also survived.
Kimberly Craig has details.
Looking at the wreckage it’s hard to believe anyone survived when the single engine Beechcraft A-36 crashed just after takeoff
On board Olympian Chirine N-Gem, her husband Ronny Kamal and their niece 17-year-old Siena Kamal
Siena’s mother took this picture, showing Siena in good spirits but her left hand is covered in burns her forearm also burned some say it’s a miracle they all survived.
“From what the wreckage was. It is a miracle that all three people survived Charlie’s survived and you know everybody’s back together now which is even makes you know puts the icing on the cake.”
Charlie is the couple’s puppy that couldn’t be found in the wreckage. Rescuers and a lot of people in the community launched a search to find the young retriever.
“Then we started putting crews out with thermal imaging cameras the sheriff’s department Collin County Sheriff’s farm put their drone up so we were on looking but you know scared animal is going to take off so we searched the immediate area couldn’t find couldn’t find him.”
Then around three in the morning a newspaper deliver driver spotted Charlie, took her in to safety and she was later reunited with relatives.
“I was delivering papers and I had, I was turning around and I cam back and I thought I saw a deer walk in front of me. I slowed down and I looked and it was a puppy. So I opened up my window and I said, ‘Hey, sweetie. What are you doing out here?’ And she came right up to the car and she was not going to let me leave without her.”
The only person still hospitalized is Ronny Kamal the 44 year old from Chicago underwent surgery earlier but his skills in piloting may have been what saved their lives.
“From where it was to go through the location and the area and a terrain. He had some skills because very easy. It could have went nosedive then you have to didn’t get enough lift and could have been totally different any of this to this good story.”
She has represented Lebanon in the Olympic sports of Long-Distance Running & Alpine Skiing.
She and her husband live in Chicago and their niece is from Georgia.
