The small plane she was riding crashed near Macon, Ga. after departing Columbus, killing her mother and three others.

Kani Howard, now 19, now lives in Jacksonville.

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Here is how Howard described the crash to 10TV News:

"Every Christmas, I came down (to Florida) to visit both sides of my family, both my dad and my mom's side.

Usually we either drove or I flew by myself, but (the other family), the Pryors, they also had family in Georgia.  They offered (to fly us and said,) 'Let's go together.'

They were good friends.  My mom worked for the City of Columbus and so did Mrs. Pryor.

We were going to fly to Georgia with them and drive over to Haines City, Fla.

It was a six-seater (plane).  It was actually very small.  We pretty much got on the plane that morning and everything seemed fine in the air.

At one point, I don't know what happened.  I just remember the engine stopped.  It just went completely silent.

The engine came back on and it went out again, but it never came back on after that. 

Knowing that Mr. Pryor was an experienced flyer, or pilot, I thought maybe we would do an emergency landing or something but I didn't realize we were in the middle of the woods.

I just remember Mr. Pryor yelling something about a tree, 'Oh, there's a tree there.  There's a tree,' and I turned around and happened to see a huge tree in front of us.  After that, I don't know what happened.  I think I blacked out.

I woke up and where I was seated, I was on the inside of the plane, both sides of the plane were completely gone and the plane was on fire.

Staying (at the crash scene), I knew someone wasn't going to find me.  I knew I had to find someone to help me.  That's probably why I left.

It would have been hard to stay because I would have had to see everyone dying and that would have been hard.

I walked, it seemed, like 10 or 15 minutes but it could have been longer.

Finally a truck came by, the pickup truck, and he picked me up.  He took me to a convenience store and I told them, 'Could you please help me?'  I was crying hysterically.  'Could you please help me?  I was just in a plane accident.  I don't know what happened.  Could you please help?'

So he told the store worker.  They called the police.  The police came down to the store.  At one point, I became really faint and the ambulance came and took me away.

I was told I only had a broken rib -- a couple of bruises, scratches - but nothing major.

(My mother) was so loving.  I miss her a lot.  She always kept me busy and I loved her for that.  I was always in dance.  I was always doing something. She did the best she could, as a single mom, taking care of me and that's what I loved about her the most.

I am taking dance classes and I am also head of the church dance group.  I am in school at Florida International University.

I don't ever take anything for granted.  Any chance you get to tell somebody you love them, you do it.  I just really do appreciate everything that I do have because you can lose everything in a second. 

I just know that if I could tell anybody this story, I would love to.  I want people to understand what I went through and to let them know, if you lost a parent, I know where you've been.  I understand what you are going through.

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