The four children who crashed in a plane 17 days ago in the jungle of Colombia appear alive

After 17 days wandering in the Amazon of Colombia, eating jungle fruits and at the mercy of wild animals, four indigenous children who were missing after a plane crash were found alive this Wednesday by rescuers. These are three children ages 13, 9 and 4 and an 11-month-old baby who have been missing since May 1, when the aircraft they were traveling in crashed apparently due to a mechanical failure.

“After arduous search efforts by our Military Forces, we have found alive the 4 children who had disappeared due to the plane crash (…) A joy for the country”, indicated the president Gustavo Petro On twitter.

LOOK: They find a missing plane and the remains of one of the occupants in southern Colombia

led by militarythe search work ended with a balance of three deceased, including the pilot and the mother of the four brothers of the Huitoto ethnic group.

After arduous search efforts by our Military Forces, we have found alive the 4 children who had disappeared due to the plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country.

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 17, 2023

More than 100 soldiers with tracking dogs followed the trail of the minors and walked through the jungle. between the departments of caquetawhere the plane was left with the front part destroyed, and Guaviareboth in the south of the country.

Petro did not detail where the children were rescued nor how many kilometers they managed to cover while they were lost.

The soldiers had found a “shelter made improvised with sticks and branches”, so they suspected that there was at least one survivor.

Nails scissors, hair ties, shoes, clothes and a baby bottle located in the middle of jungle branches They served as an indication for the uniformed officers.

An image distributed by the Colombian army shows a soldier with a dog checking some scissors found in the forest, on May 17, 2023. (AFP). (HANDOUT/)

A baby bottle found in the woods while searching for the children. (AFP). (HANDOUT/)

Also they found “bitten fruits of the jungle”, Germán Camargo, director of Civil Defense in the department of Meta, told AFP, from where the efforts to rescue and extract the bodies of the pilot and two passengers who were located in the department of Caquetá were coordinated.

A label from a headband found in the woods in a rural area of ​​the municipality of Solano. (AFP). (COLOMBIAN ARMY PRESS /)

By land and air

Gigantic trees up to 40 meters, wild animals and heavy rains made the search difficult.

The Air Force joined the so-called “Operation Hope” with three helicopters that flew over the dense jungle for days.

One of them carried a speaker “capable of covering an area of ​​about 1,500 meters” with a message recorded by the children’s grandmother.. In the Huitoto language, the woman told her grandchildren that they were looking for them and asked them not to continue advancing through the jungle.

The authorities have not reported the reasons for the flight of the aboriginal family. According to the local press, the seventh passenger was a leader of that community.

In this region of difficult access by river and without highways, the inhabitants usually travel in private flights.

According to the Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), the Huitotos live in “harmony” with the hostile conditions of the Amazon and preserve traditions such as hunting, fishing and gathering wild fruits.

The pilot reported problems with the aircraft’s engine minutes before the accidentaccording to the official body for disaster care.

Source: Elcomercio