Anchorage (Alaska), Mar 26 (AP) A pilot and two children survived on the wing of a plane for about 12 hours after it crashed and was partially submerged in an icy Alaska lake. They were rescued after being spotted by a Good Samaritan.

Terry Godes said he saw a Facebook post on Sunday night calling for people to help search for the missing plane. On Monday morning, he headed toward the Tustumena Lake near the toe of a glacier and spotted what he thought was wreckage.

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"It kind of broke my heart to see that, but as I got closer down and lower, I could see that there are three people on top of the wing," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

After saying a little prayer, he continued to get closer and saw a miracle.

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“They were alive and responsive and moving around," he said, adding they waved at him as he approached.

The missing Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, piloted by a man with two immediate juvenile family members aboard, flew on Sunday on a recreational sightseeing tour from Soldotna to Skilak Lake on the Kenai Peninsula.

The three were rescued from the eastern edge of Tustumena Lake on Monday by the Alaska National Guard after Godes alerted other pilots searching for the plane that he had found it.

Another pilot, Dale Eicher, heard Godes' radio call and alerted troopers since he was closer to Skilak Lake and figured he had better cell reception, and was also able to provide the plane's coordinates to authorities.

“I wasn't sure if we would find them, especially because there was a cloud layer over quite a bit of the mountains so they could have very easily been in those clouds that we couldn't get to,” Eicher said.

But he said that finding them within an hour of starting the search and finding them alive "was very good news".

The three were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, Alaska State Troopers said.

“They spent a long, cold, dark and wet night out on top of a wing of an airplane that they weren't planning on," Godes said.

He said there were many miracles at play, from the plane not sinking, the survivors being able to stay on the wing to the three also surviving the night in temperatures dipping into the 20s (subzero Celsius).

The plane was mostly submerged in the lake with the wing and the top of the rudder as the only parts exposed above the ice and water, he said.

The 24,200-hectare Tustumena Lake is situated about 130 km southwest of Anchorage and has been described by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as "notorious for its sudden, dangerous winds". (AP)

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