Four young children were found alive after they survived a plane crash and spent more than a month looking after themselves in the Amazon like “children of the jungle”, as per Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Petro announced on Twitter that the children were found alive 40 days after they went missing after the plane in which they were traveling crashed killing their mother. He told the reporters on Friday, “Their learning from indigenous families and their learning of living in the jungle has saved them.”
He said the children were found together while adding that they represent a “total survival that will be remembered in history. They are children of the jungle and now they are children of Colombia.”
On Saturday, Lucho Acosta, Indigenous leader who participated in the search, informed US based cable news network CNN that the children were located by the authorities after they heard the youngest child, an infant, cry. Acosta is the coordinator of indigenous searches in the Amazon region.
He said, “They were very weak, we could find them by listening to the cries of the youngest one, but they were really tired, they were no longer on the move, like in the first few weeks.”
After announcing the discovery, the Columbian President tweeted, “A joy for the whole country”, along with an image showing the children being treated by the search crew in the forest.
Maria Fatima Valencia, the grandmother of the children, said she was “going to hug all of them” and “thank everyone” when she finally reunited with her grandchildren in Villavicencio, their hometown. She said, “I’m going to encourage them, I’m going to push them forward, I need them here.”
In the photos released, children who appeared to be emaciated were checked by doctors before they were flown out by the Columbian Air Force in an air ambulance to the Military Transport Air Command located in the capital Bogota, early on Saturday morning. According to the air force, the children were treated by four medics, including a pediatrician and a neonatologist, on the plane taking them home.
As per the data shown by Fightradar24, a flight tracker, the air ambulance touched ground at the Military Transport Air Command in Bogota on Saturday morning.
Petro stated that the children were weak, required food and their mental status will be checked. He added, “Let the doctors make their assessment and we will know.’
Stranded after the plane crash
On May 1, Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, aged 13, Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 4, and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy were wrecked in the Amazon as the only survivors of a deadly plane crash.
Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, their mother, and two others onboard, pilot Hernando Murcia Morales and Herman Mendoza Hernández, Yarupari indigenous leader were killed in the crash.
The children going missing in the deep jungle encouraged a combined military-led search operation with more than a hundred Colombian special forces troops and over 70 indigenous scouts.
Weeks into the search yielded clues such as footprints, a dirty diaper and a bottle. According to the family members, the oldest among the four had some experience, even though the hopes of discovering them alive were growing slim by the weeks.
Petro stated that they had to protect themselves from a dog during their affliction in the jungle. Acosta said the children were found alive in an area of cleared trees which the search crew couldn’t examine until Friday.
He further added, “The place we found them is about three hours from the site of the crash, walking through the jungle. It’s a very short distance, but in the jungle terrain it takes a long time to move around,” he added.
‘The miracle’
The Columbian Defense Ministry tweeted, “We never stopped looking for them until the miracle came.”
Petro is looking forward to meeting the children on Saturday, he said, at a press conference on Friday evening.
“The most important thing now is what the doctors say, they have been lost for 40 days, their health condition must have been stressed. We need to check their mental state too,” he said.
