Four children from an indigenous community who were traveling in a small single-engine plane that crashed to the ground survived and were found alive in an inhospitable jungle area in southeastern Colombia, 16 days after the crash, President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday.
The minors were rescued by Army troops, firefighters and Civil Aeronautics officials in the jungles of the department of Caquetá, near the area where the Cessna 206 plane crashed on the route between Araracuara, in the department of Amazonas, and the city of San Jose del Guaviare.
“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”, wrote Petro on his Twitter account.
The aircraft, with seven occupants, declared an emergency on the morning of May 1, due to an apparent engine failure.
The three adults who were traveling on the plane, including the pilot, died and their bodies were found inside the aircraft, although the four children aged 13, 9 and 4, as well as an 11-month-old baby, survived the impact.
Preliminary information from the Civil Aeronautics, which coordinated the rescue efforts without interruption despite the climatic difficulties, indicates that the children got out of the plane and began to walk in search of help in the middle of the jungle.
The rescuers, who had the support of dogs trained in search and rescue, found before the discovery traces of fruits that the children ate to survive and improvised shelters made with vegetation in the middle of the jungle.
Air Force and Army planes and helicopters participated in the search and rescue operation.
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