For family in plane crash, ring tone 'set off chain of hope'

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   >>> the california family rescued on a steep and snowy mountainside in idaho after walking away from a small plane crash . we'll talk with them exclusively in just a moment. but first savannah has their story. savannah.

   >> when california captain and his family set off on a memorial day weekend , he never imagined their plane would crash into an idaho forest. thanks to some modern technology and a dedicated group of rescuers, they all survived.

   >> definitely ready to get back in the seat.

   >> reporter: brian brown is preparing to head back to work at this firehouse in california , a rescue worker who was grateful for a daring rescue that saved his life and the lives of his wife and daughter. it was memorial day weekend , brown, his wife jay ann and daughter had been flying to idaho to see their other daughter heather when they hit bad weather .

   >> i could still see the mountain terrain and all the clouds. my overall visibility was just very poor.

   >> their plane a cessna 182 stalled. brown said he had mere moments to prepare his family for the worst case scenario .

   >> i had really just about enough time to tell the girls on the plane, i'm sorry, i don't think we're going to make it. i love you.

   >> seconds later the plane crashed.

   >> i very vividly remember the entire impact and i guess you could say waking up first.

   >> stranded for hours, injured, the browns huddled together in the darkness and freezing cold until the silence was broken by a familiar sound, a cell phone ringtone. dancing queen

   >> a call came through from tabit tabitha , which meant a miracle. they had cell phone service.

   >> i think i reacted like a mother, what does tabitha want? what does tabitha want? i don't care. call 911.

   >> i'm on an airplane and i crashed. i'm in the mountains.

   >> where are you at,00?

   >> i'm at 29 miles east or west of mountain home , idaho . i need you to send a search party please.

   >> rescuers with the national guard fought against whiteout conditions, six-foot snowdrift and 60 degree slopes. it took almost 15 hours to reach the crash site. brown says divine intervention gave his family a second chance at life.

   >> we did have an opportunity to stay on this world longer and we have to make good with it.

   >> well, that cell phone came in handy in another way. the browns used an app for strobe light to help rescuers rescue them from overhead.

   >> thank you. the brown family is joining us exclusively, brown, jay ann and heather on the plane heading to visit their sister and daughter tabitha howell. good morning to all of you. watching that story and reliving all of this brought up a lot of emotion for all of you. are you here in part because you want to heal a bit?

   >> oh, yeah, absolutely. i've told you before that just the opportunity to be able to get the story, you know, off our chest, out of our minds has been a big part of the healing process for us.

   >> what are the most touching moments hearing that you told your family you loved them. you weren't going to make it, right before this happened. you had time to do that. how did you know you weren't going to make it.

   >> i recognized the stall characteristics coming on the airplane, the feel of the controls and even on the instrumentation. and just knew what the amount of altitude we had that i wasn't going to be able to clear the next ridge line. and so again, the stall just happened. i reacted to it to try and bring the nose up.

   >> and crashed belly first, which may have been a move that helped save your life. jay ann , when you awake from being unconscious, describe what you were seeing and feeling.

   >> well, it was dark. i was surprised. i didn't really react to anything. it was all very unreal to me, but i was glad to see that my husband and my daughter were okay and just changed god we were still -- okay, god, we're still here.

   >> your goal number one, to survive. then you had to face the freezing cold, incredible temperatures, incredible cold. you're dressed for summer. heather, i understand you gave up the blanket. why did you make sure your parents had the blanket. you had one blanket.

   >> we did. we had one blanket for the whole trip that i happened to just bring because i was cold that morning. because both of my parents had suffered head injuries , i had kind of known just from natural instinct, hey, head injuries , they need to stay warm more. it's more important for them to stay warm than it is for me to stay warm because i didn't have any injuries, visual injuries at that point.

   >> at that point, you didn't think a cell phone would work. why? why wasn't a cell phone supposed to work, ryan?

   >> we were in the mountain areas pretty deep. i've never had luck with a cell phone working in the mountain areas at all.

   >> it was tabitha 's call that gave you hope. you processed that, that your call told them the cell phone would work. what do you think about that?

   >> it's -- you know, you mentioned before, the first miracle. it's just -- to think that set off their chain of hope, that's not what i was trying to do. i was just worried where my family was. they were very late. i was waiting to pick them up, ready for a visit. you know, just so thankful that i didn't hesitate any longer to find out what's going on.

   >> heather, why " dancing queen ."

   >> it's actually not my phone. it's kind of been misinterpreted it was my phone. it was actually my mom's cell phone that i found. that just happened to be what -- it's one of those silly songs from her college days that -- just one of those fun songs.

   >> did you pick the " dancing queen " song?

   >> i picked the " dancing queen " song when tabitha was in college. the girls would get together on saturday morning and start cleaning the whole dorm room. everybody would put the song " dancing queen " on because it was motivational and upbeat. it's just silly.

   >> just what you needed to hear at that moment.

   >> there's really no reason other than that.

   >> well, it worked.

   >> yes.

   >> a couple of miracles. thank you so much for joining us. i hope in some ways it will make you feel a little better to get this off your chest.

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