Panamanian rescue workers struggling against heavy rains and high-altitude winds began a five-hour trek through rough mountain terrain Wednesday to bring to safety a 12-year-old American girl who was the only survivor of a weekend plane crash. Francesca Lewis apparently suffered a broken arm and hypothermia, her mother, Valerie Lewis, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Boquete, a resort village miles away from the crash site. «My husband spoke to her by phone this morning,» Lewis said. «She sounded good. She just said 'Hi, daddy. See you soon.»' Francesca was found Tuesday walking near the wreckage of the plane in the 3,500-feet (1,067-meter) high, jungle-laden flanks of the Baru volcano, about 430 kilometers (270 miles) west of the capital, Panama City, Lewis said. The crash of the Cessna 172 on Sunday killed Francesca's friend Talia Klein, 13, Klein's father, Michael Klein, 37, of Santa Barbara, California, and Panamanian pilot Edwin Lasso, 23. Valerie Lewis said she was anxious to see her daughter. Rescue officials were bringing her down to Boquete, where a helicopter was waiting to evacuate her, said National Civil Protection Director Armando Palacios. He said 17 workers, including a paramedic, had arrived at the crash site with food and medicine. He estimated it would take rescue workers about five hours to reach town, where her parents and a medical team were waiting. Aviation authorities said the cause of the crash was not yet known, but RPC radio reported that witnesses saw the plane flying at a very low altitude in buffeting winds around noon Sunday.
