News reports of the recent tragic plane crash in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, are just beginning to trickle out. One story getting much attention is focused on the heroic action of 14-year-old April Mosier.

In this Mosier family photo, April Mosier is on the far left.

Adventist Review news editor, Mark A. Kellner, reports:

The young woman, was traveling with her mother, father, and 3-year-old brother from Goma to Kisangani, Congo, where her older brother Keith, 24, has begun a mission project. The Mosiers are all serving with Outpost Centers International, a lay ministry that supports the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The flight did not clear the runway ? media reports indicate a tire may have blown out ? and the plane crashed into a nearby open-air market. At least 40 people were reported killed; more than 100 survived, reports indicate. April "probably was one of the first ones to get to the opening," Barry Mosier, her father, said in a telephone interview from Goma two days after the crash. "She was right there, knowing what to do; none of the exit doors were open. She told a man, in Swahili, that ?We've got to get out of there or we'll die,'" he added. Young April pushed at a panel until a passage large enough for her to get through was found; she then made a run for it. Her father said that April had feared her family had died in the crash; they were later reunited at a local hospital.

Click here for the CNN version.
The Mosier family, originally from Minnesota, has been focused on missions work in southwestern Tanzania. For the full story from Adventist news, click here.

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Posted by Tim Morgan on April 17, 2008 11:33AM