An extraordinary feat: children found alive 40 days after plane crash in Amazon

Four children have been found alive after surviving a plane crash and landing in Colombia’s Amazon jungle, where they survived for 40 days.

The siblings are 13, 9, 4, and just 11 months old, and belong to the Huitoto indigenous group.

Tragically, the children’s mother and two pilots were killed when their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on May 1st. The Cessna 206 aircraft the children and their mother had been travelling on before the crash was flying from Araracuara to San José del Guaviare, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure, reports the BBC.

The bodies of the three adults were found at the crash site by the army, but the children were nowhere in sight – The bodies of the three adults were found at the crash site by the army, but the children were nowhere in sight – making them the focus of an elaborate rescue mission composed of the military and civilians alike. On a trail, rescuers discovered a child’s bottle, scissors, a hair tie and even a shelter – as well as small footprints.

According to The Guardian, the forest in question is quite dangerous, full of predatory animals and recently assailed by copious storms.

Indigenous people joined the search and helicopters broadcast a message from the children’s grandmother, recorded in the Huitoto language, urging them to stop moving to make them easier to locate. The children’s grandmother has stated: „I am very grateful, and to mother earth as well, that they were set free”. She said the eldest of the four siblings was used to looking after the other three when their mother was at work, and that this helped them survive in the jungle. „She gave them flour and cassava bread, any fruit in the bush, they know what they must consume”. Generally, indigenous children are more accustomed to spending time in the Amazon than other children.

Strangely, the president came under criticism last month when a tweet published on his account mistakenly announced that the children had been found. He deleted the tweet the next day.  After they were found, their grandfather called on the authorities to allow the children to be moved closer to their family in Villavicencio from Bogota, where they have been receiving medical aid.

Reportedly, food supplies, water bottles, and survival instructions were thrown around for the children to find – nevertheless, their capacity to care for each other in such circumstances remains miraculous, as does their resilience in the wake of losing their mother.

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