Idaho Plane Crash: Family of Three Rescued After 15 Hours in Snow [Video]

BOISE, Idaho — A family of three from California is feeling especially blessed this Memorial Day after being rescued when their plane crashed in the snowy mountains in a remote part of Idaho over the weekend.

MSNBC reports firefighter Brian Brown, 47, his wife Jayann, 46, and their adult daughter Heather were flying in a Cessna 172 from California to Mountain Home, Idaho, when the plane went down at about 9am MDT Saturday.

Authorities say Heather Brown used her cellphone just after midnight to report that her family had survived the crash but had suffered head and back injuries.

A medical helicopter found the wreckage on Sunday morning but white-out conditions made an immediate rescue impossible.

“It was inhospitable for a landing,” Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard told the Associated Press. “The use of the helicopter was indispensable for this type of rescue operation.”

Eventually, rescuers on foot hiked through 6-foot snowdrifts to reach the crash site, and then started a fire and wrapped the family in blankets while awaiting an airlift.

Fox News reports the members of Brown family were then airlifted and flown one at a time to a landing area about a half-mile from War Eagle Mountain in southwest Idaho’s Owyhee County. They were later flown to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, where they remain in stable condition Monday.

In all, the Browns spent over 15 hours on the snowy Idaho mountainside before they were rescued. The cause of the crash is still being investigated.

KMVT has more on the Brown family’s amazing survival story in the video below:

Image: ABC