Survivor of a plane crash at high altitude: the story of Norman Jr. Ollestad

by Kyt Lyn Walken

A young, very young age is not always synonymous with weakness and unpreparedness for the tragedies that life can reserve for us.
Several times, in fact, stories bordering on the unbelievable have shown that the little ones can have unexpected resources in terms of tenacity and resistance. And resilience, too.
In a previous article we told the story of Julian Koepcke, who survived a plane crash in the inhospitable and harsh Amazonian jungle.
This article also features a child and a tragic plane crash.
And a mountain, with its 2600 meters of height.

February 19, 1979.

(pictured Norman Jr. and his father)

Norman Ollestad Jr. is eleven years old and traveling with his father Norman and his girlfriend Sandra to Big Bear Mountain. They have to collect a trophy, and the journey on the Cessna is, in itself, an exciting experience for little Norman.
The St. Gabriel’s Mountains, in Southern California, lie majestically below them: intense, inaccessible, too.
All of a sudden the Cessna finds itself in the middle of a storm. Everything disappears from Norman Jr.’s sight. His ears and brains fill with the screams of the other passengers.
The father, together with the pilot, die immediately. Sandra reports a bad shoulder dislocation and a blow to the head, but she is alive.
Little Norman Jr. He realizes they can’t hesitate near the wreckage of the aircraft: they have to get off, gain a lower altitude, ask for help. Without even a pair of gloves with him, the child grabs Sandra by the hand and begins the arduous descent from 2600 meters of altitude.
Holding the woman tightly, step by step, Norman Jr. walks with difficulty but with his father’s words “Never give up” in his head. This will then tell at the Los Angeles Time.
Never give up. He uses his head. Never lose heart. Do what common sense requires you to do. You know how to deal with mountains, I’ve told you many times, Norman. You just have to go down, and ask for help.
Don’t look back.
But suddenly Sandra is gone: she slipped to her little hands, and she fell who knows where, she who knows when. Everything is confusing, but not unreasonable.
Not for Norman Jr, who continues his descent to safety.
For nine intense, lonely hours.
Norman Jr. Ollestadt told it all in one book, “Crazy For The Storm: A Memoir of Survival” – “Crazy for the Storm” (2009).

At the beginning of a critical situation, food is often the least of our thoughts.
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