Three people - including two children - survived on the wing of a for about 12 hours after it and was partially submerged in an icy lake.

It meant a Good Samaritan was able to spot the stranded youngsters and help rescue them against all odds on Sunday. Terry Godes was one of approximately 12 pilots who headed out to scour the rugged terrain for the Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, which went missing after taking off in Soldotna.

Mr Godes feared the worst but was overwhelmed to see the children and the male pilot, alive - albeit struggling - on the wing of the plane. The three victims have been taken to the hospital, but their injuries are not thought to be serious.

"It kind of broke my heart to see that, but as I got closer down and lower, I could see that there's three people on top of the wing... They were alive and responsive and moving around," Mr Godes said, adding the kids waved at him as he flew over the cold Tustumena Lake in rural Alaska.

After it lost contact with authorities following its departure for a recreational sightseeing tour to Skilak Lake in Alaska.

But the children clambered out of the water and sat together on a wing - which had submerged from the water - and huddled together there for 12 hours to survive. Strangers, including Mr Godes, helped the Alaska Army National Guard rescue the trio. Mr Godes continued: "They spent a long, cold, dark, wet night out on top of a wing of an airplane that they weren’t planning on... It's a cold, dark place out there at night."

Dale Eicher, another Good Samaritan, said: "I wasn’t sure if we would find them, especially because there was a cloud layer over quite a bit of the mountain,s so they could have very easily been in those clouds that we couldn’t get to." He added that finding the family within an hour of starting the search, and finding them alive "was very good news."

Alaska is a state with few roads, leaving many communities to use the air as the preferred mode of transportation. Last month, in western Alaska, in the Norton Sound, near Nome on the state’s western coast. The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet in the same state when it lost contact, David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air, said. There was light and fog, with a temperature of -8.3C, according to the National Service.