In a remarkable turn of events, four Indigenous children who had been missing for 40 days after surviving a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest were discovered alive on Friday, as announced by Colombian authorities. The nation had been captivated by the intense search for the children, which has now come to a joyous end.
President Gustavo Petro, speaking to reporters upon his return to Bogota from Cuba, where he had signed a cease-fire agreement, revealed that the children were found alone and are currently receiving medical attention. He described them as an “example of survival” and predicted that their story would be etched in history.
No immediate details were provided regarding how the children managed to survive independently for such a prolonged period in the dense rainforest.
The plane crash occurred in the early hours of May 1 when a Cessna single-engine propeller aircraft, carrying six passengers and a pilot, declared an emergency due to engine failure. Shortly after disappearing from radar, a frantic search for survivors commenced. On May 16, two weeks after the crash, a search team located the wreckage in a dense area of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board. However, the whereabouts of the young children remained unknown.
With hopes that the children might still be alive, Colombia’s army intensified its efforts, deploying 150 soldiers with search dogs to track the group of four siblings aged 13, 9, 4, and 11 months. Numerous volunteers from Indigenous tribes also joined in the search.
On Friday, the military shared photos on Twitter, showcasing soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets. One of the soldiers gently offered a bottle to the youngest child.
Later, the air force released a video on Twitter, displaying soldiers using a line to hoist the children into a helicopter that departed into the night. The destination was mentioned as the town of San Jose del Guaviare, although no further details were provided.
Colombia’s military command expressed gratitude on Twitter, stating, “The union of our efforts made this possible.”
During the search, conducted in an area of limited visibility due to mist and thick foliage, helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle in hopes of sustaining the children. Planes flew overhead, firing flares to aid ground crews during the nighttime, while rescuers utilized megaphones broadcasting a recorded message from the siblings’ grandmother, urging them to stay in one location.
Rumors about the children’s whereabouts had surfaced, and on May 18, President Petro mistakenly tweeted that they had been found before deleting the message, clarifying that he had been misinformed by a government agency.
The group of children had been traveling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare when the crash occurred. Belonging to the Huitoto people, the older children possessed some knowledge of surviving in the rainforest.
Upon confirming the rescue, President Petro revealed that he initially believed the children had been saved by one of the nomadic tribes that inhabit the remote jungle area and have limited contact with authorities. However, it was later disclosed that the children were initially found by one of the rescue dogs accompanying the soldiers.
Officials did not disclose the exact distance between the children and the crash site when they were located. However, the search teams had been scouring within a radius of 4.5 kilometers (nearly 3 miles) from the location where the plane had plummeted into the forest floor.
As the search progressed, soldiers discovered small signs in the jungle that indicated the children were still alive
Author: IBC Global Times
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