3 teens thank rescuers who saved them after car tumbled down Chatsworth cliff

CHATSWORTH, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Three young survivors of a harrowing nighttime Chatsworth canyon rescue returned to the scene of the crash Saturday to thank their rescuers in person.

Kristina Cuellar remembered every harrowing detail of the crash that happened on Oct. 29, 2016. She was a passenger in a car that tumbled off Woolsey Canyon Road. Her close friends, Justina Hernandez and Carlos Luna, were knocked unconscious.

"Waking up to see people who mean so much to you in your life and you don't know if they're dead or alive - it's the most scariest feeling in the world," she said.

The driver, Justina, pulled over on what she thought was the side of the road, but her car slid off the cliff and then tumbled 75 feet to the bottom of the canyon.

Rescuers from the Los Angeles County and city fire departments and sheriff's department's Malibu search and rescue team rappelled down ropes through rough terrain to reach the victims and save them.

A helicopter hovering above hoisted the injured teens back to the top of the hillside.

"It was amazing what you guys did and we're all very thankful because without that I don't think any of us could have been here today," Carlos said.

The three reunited with many of the rescuers involved in the effort and thanked them for their heroic work.

"I will always remember the work that all of you as a team completed that night. Though I'm still recovering both physically and emotionally, I would not have been allowed this opportunity to do so without the care and support that you have all provided me with," Kristina said.