Corporal Margaret Hastings

Corporal Margaret Hastings was a thirty year old woman who joined the Women's Army Corps to see the world and to have an adventure. On May 13, 1945, Margaret was on board a sightseeing flight to see the newly discovered valley that had been dubbed Shangri-La by the press. As the plane dipped low to look down upon a native village, the copilot missed the mountain ridge quickly coming up in front of them because of cloud cover. The copilot raised the nose of the plane to try to fly over the obstacle, perhaps saving Margaret's life. Margaret, who had been sitting in the back of the plane, was able to crawl off the plane with burns and cuts.

Margaret was the only woman to survive the plane crash for more than a few hours. Margaret moved down to a small clearing with the two male survivors of...