The father of two of the four children who were found alive 40 days after a plane crash in the Colombian jungle said Sunday that his children’s survival was a “miracle from God.”
Lesly, 13 years old; Soleiny, nine; You have four; and Cristin, who turned one year old in previous days, were found on Friday in the southeastern department of Caquetá, near the place where the plane in which they were traveling crashed. The children are “out of danger” and receiving treatment.
“It’s a miracle from God,” Manuel Ranoque told reporters outside the capital’s military hospital where his son Tien and little Cristin are.
“It is a test that God is doing to me, how much faith I have in him,” he added.
Ranoque assured that her children managed to survive thanks to their indigenous upbringing. Authorities have said that the children ate cassava flour that they took from the crashed plane and salvaged some of the food dropped randomly by Army helicopters.
On May 1, a Cessna 206 with seven people on board crashed due to engine failure while en route between Araracuara, in the Caquetá department, and the city of San José del Guaviare. The incident sparked an intense search.
Three adults, including the pilot and the children’s mother, Magdalena Mucutuy, died in the accident. Their bodies were found inside the plane. The children have been missing ever since.
Operation Hope, the mission to find the four brothers, kept all of Colombia on edge. The search efforts were carried out by Colombian special forces and members of indigenous communities who traveled more than 2,600 kilometers in the middle of the inhospitable jungle, with the support of helicopters and trained dogs.
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