Local Firefighter, Family Survive Plane Crash In Idaho Wilderness

WILTON (CBS13) - A local firefighter and his family crashed their plane into a snow-covered mountain in the Idaho wilderness over the weekend and were stranded for hours waiting for help, but all made it through the ordeal.

"When we crashed, I just made the general statement to everybody in the plane that we're going to survive this."

With that determination Cosumnes Fire Captain Brian Brown and his family took on a terrifying fight for survival.

"I think we experienced a lot of divine intervention that's for sure," he said.

It was Saturday night and Brown was piloting a private plane with his wife and daughter on board on their way to family in Idaho when suddenly the plane started falling.

Brown, speaking from a hospital bed in Boise, says it's likely his wings iced over in the freezing weather.

"I pulled the nose of the plane so basically the belly of the plane for the most part slammed into the side of the mountain," he said.

A crash into the frigid Idaho wilderness, but amazingly everyone was alive.

"We were in a very treacherous mountain area and definitely in freezing conditions," he said.

Brown says immediately his first-responder training kicked in, tending to his wife, who was unconscious, stabilizing her and eventually waking her up. But they knew they needed help and their radio wasn't working.

"My youngest daughter said 'Hey, I'm going to try and call 911.' And she did and remarkably, I don't know divine intervention I guess, it worked," he said.

A signal in the middle of no where, but the Wilton family wasn't saved yet. Crews would spend the next 12 hours searching for them, fighting whiteout conditions while the family built fires to stop from freezing to death.

The call in the seconds after the crash, but the Brown family would wait 12 hours for help to finally show up.

"Hi, I'm in an airplane and I crashed and I'm in the mountains," Brown's daughter calmly told the 911 dispatcher.

"Where are you at, hon?" the 911 operator responded.

"I'm at 29 miles east or west of Mountain Home, Idaho. I need you to send a search party, please."

The Browns used a strobe light app on a cell phone to get rescuers' attention. They had survived a plane crash and then the elements, beating the odds twice in 12 hours.

"Usually those types of crashes end up in a body recovery, and for us all literally to walk away from it, we're incredible fortunate," Brown said.