Girl Found Alive Two Days After Plane Crash

A 12-year-old girl has been found alive in the ruins of a light airplane more than two days after it crashed into a remote jungle region of Panama.

The Panamanian pilot and the two other passengers - a Californian hedge fund manager and his 13-year-old daughter - were killed when the plane came down in bad weather on Sunday.

Rescuers said the survivor, who is also American, had multiple injuries and hypothermia. She was to be evacuated once the weather improved.

The bodies of Michael Klein, 37, Talia Klein, 13, and pilot Edwin Lasso, 23, were found yesterday in an uninhabited region known as Las Ovejas, 270 miles west of the capital, Panama's civil protection agency said.

The wreckage was in a hard-to-reach site on the slope of the Baru volcano, at an altitude of some 1,070m (3,500ft), the civil aviation authority said.

Rescuers were giving medical attention to Francesca Lewis - a friend of Talia's who was on holiday with the Kleins - in a makeshift shelter, said Jose Henriquez, a prosecutor in the Chiriqui state capital of David.

Henriquez said he did not know the extent of her injuries or whether they were life-threatening.

"They're warming her, and we hope to be able to get her out sometime tonight to a hospital," Henriquez said by telephone from Boquete in Chiriqui state. "It's raining and it's very cold."

Aviation authorities said the cause of the crash was not yet known, but RPC radio reported that witnesses saw the plane being buffeted by strong winds and flying at a very low altitude around noon on Sunday.

Klein was holidaying with the girls at an eco-resort he owns in the Central American nation, according to Kim Klein, his ex-wife and Talia's mother.

The three had been due to return to Santa Barbara, California, on Monday, she said.

Their plane disappeared after departing on Sunday morning from Islas Secas off Panama's Pacific coast, heading for the Chiriqui volcano.

Rescue workers and volunteers combed a mountainous area of Panama's western Chiriqui province on Christmas Eve and Christmas Dy, but dense tropical foliage, mountainous terrain and heavy rain made air and land searches extremely difficult, said Roberto Rolando Rodriguez, a spokesman for the air security agency.

Mrs Klein travelled to Panama on Monday morning and offered $25,000 (£12,600) to anyone who could locate the aircraft.

Her former husband was the chief executive of Pacificor LLC, a Santa Barbara-based company that manages hedge funds. He founded two companies in the 1990s before becoming president and CEO of eGroups Inc, which was the world's largest group e-mail communication service.

Yahoo bought eGroups for $450m in August 2000 and it is now known as Yahoo Groups.