![]() ![]() He then deleted the message, claiming he had been misinformed by a government agency. Rumors also emerged about the childrens' wheareabouts and on May 18 the president tweeted that the children had been found. Planes flying over the jungle fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used speakers that blasted a message recorded by the siblings’ grandmother, telling them to stay in one place. Dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes also helped search.ĭuring the search, in an area where visibility is greatly limited by mist and thick folliage, soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, hoping that it would help sustain the children. ![]() Sensing that they could be alive, Colombia’s army stepped up the hunt and flew 150 soldiers with dogs into the area. Two weeks after the crash, on May 16, a search team found the plane in a thick patch of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the small children were nowhere to be found. The small aircraft fell off radar a short time later and a frantic search for survivors began. The crash happened in the early hours of May 1, when the Cessna single-engine propeller plane with six passengers and a pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure. One of the soldiers held a bottle to the smallest child’s lips. ![]() The military tweeted pictures showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets. Petro called them an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history.” No details were released on how the four siblings aged 13, 9, 4 and 11 months managed to survive on their own for so long, though they belong to an Indigenous group that lives in the remote region. The craft flew off in the fading light, the air force said it was going to San Jose del Guaviare, a small town on the edge of the jungle. He said he hoped to talk with them Saturday, and officials said late Friday that the youngsters were being brought to Bogota to be checked at a hospital.Īn air force video showed a helicopter using lines to pull the youngsters up because it couldn’t land in the dense rainforest where they were found. President Gustavo Petro celebrated the news upon returning from Cuba, where he signed a cease-fire with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group. The announcement of their rescue on Friday brought a happy ending to a saga that had captivated many Colombians, a watch with highs and lows as searchers frantically combed through the rainforest hunting for the youngsters. BOGOTA, Colombia-Four Indigenous children survived an Amazon plane crash that killed three adults and then wandered on their own in the jungle for 40 days before being found alive by Colombian soldiers. ![]()
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