Lone Survivor Prayed And Yelled For Help

PORTLAND - A badly injured woman who was the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her husband, daughter and three others called for help every few minutes in the 38 hours before she was rescued.

Kathy Madill, 42, was found Sunday morning in 20 inches of snow by a hunter near the Cowlitz County town of Ryderwood. She was in fair condition yesterday at Emanuel Hospital here with a broken collarbone and hypothermia.

Ken Strobeck, a hospital spokesman, said Madill was not talking with reporters. But he relayed some of her comments to The Daily News in Longview.

Killed in the Friday crash was Madill's husband, Pat Madill, 42, president of S. Madill Ltd., a Nanaimo, B.C., logging-equipment company with a plant in Kalama, Cowlitz County.

The other victims were Kathy Madill's daughter, Leanne Johnson, 19; Johnson's boyfriend, Ralph Pomphrey, 20; company pilot Kenneth W. Anderson, 47; and his wife, Marlene Anderson, 44, all of the Nanaimo area. The group was flying from Nanaimo to Kelso on a business trip and to attend the Kalama-plant Christmas party.

Strobeck relayed the following account from Kathy Madill:

The twin-engine, 10-seat Aero Commander 690 crashed in deep snow and heavy timber. After regaining consciousness, Madill found that she, her husband and Marlene Anderson were still alive. They smelled kerosene and worried about an explosion.

Madill and her husband pushed out the rest of a broken window and crawled onto a wing. The pilot's wife apparently was pinned in the co-pilot's seat and couldn't move.

Together, the three of them said the Lord's Prayer, and a few minutes later the pilot's wife stopped breathing. Soon, Madill's husband began suffering stomach pains and vomiting. He died in a few hours.

Madill tried to call out every five minutes, saying: ``Help us - we need a doctor. Somebody help us.''

It snowed, her clothing was wet, and she wasn't able to get on her feet.

``Sunday . . . as I was about to give up hope, I kept calling out, and someone answered,'' Strobeck said she told him.

A hunter walked up, put his jacket over her and said he'd get some help.

Cowlitz County Sheriff Brian Pedersen said Madill was found downhill from the plane, which crashed on the north side of Abernathy Mountain, about five miles southwest of Ryderwood.