Two weeks after the plane crashed in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, four children aboard were found. The children survived by eating fruit in huts made of vegetation.
According to Reuters on the 17th, on the 1st (local time), a light plane crashed in the Caqueta area, an Amazon jungle in southern Colombia.
Seven people, including the pilot, were on board the plane (Cessna Flight 206), which departed from Aracuara, Amazonas, Colombia, and headed for the small town of San Jose del Guaviare.
The plane disappeared from radar after the pilot communicated that there was an engine problem.
The crash site is a rugged terrain where two tributaries of the Kaketa River merge, making it almost impossible to access by land and only accessible by air.
The military launched a search with three helicopters, about 100 soldiers, and detection dogs.
A total of three people on board, including the children’s mother, two adults and one pilot, were found dead.
However, the four children aged 13, 9, 4, and 11 months old who were on board disappeared without a trace. The children were from the community’s native Witoto people.
The jungle was dense with huge trees growing up to 40m tall. In addition, the search was hampered by bad weather with heavy rain and threatening wild animals.
The search authorities recorded the children’s grandmother’s voice telling them to “stay still in the forest” in the native language and broadcast it over a helicopter loudspeaker.
On the morning of the 17th, about two weeks after the accident, rescuers found and rescued the surviving children in the dense jungle. At the site, there were temporary shelters made of vegetation and pieces of fruit that the children seemed to have eaten to survive.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted a post on Twitter that day, saying, “After a hard search by our military, we have found four missing children,” adding, “It is the joy of the whole country.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.