Colombia was able to enjoy a fourfold miracle this weekend. With sunken faces, covered in insect bites, but out of danger, the four children were found on Friday whose plane crashed on May 1 in a deserted corner of the Amazon rainforest. The three adults on board did not survive the crash, but when the plane was found in mid-May, there was no trace of the three sisters Lesly (13), Soleiny (9), Cristin (11 months) and little brother Noriel (4).
After the discovery of the plane, the Colombian army started combing the forest together with local indigenous people. Military jets and two Black Hawk helicopters used heat and infrared cameras to search through the dense foliage. Survival kits containing bottled water, sandwiches and farina (yucca semolina) left behind, which sometimes also appeared to have been addressed. A call from grandma was played through loudspeakers, calling on her grandchildren in their own native language to stay in one place.
Birthdays in the forest
Although the mission’s nameOperacion Esperanza‘, Colombia was already losing hope a bit. Cristin and Noriel had to live their first and fifth birthdays in the jungle. The search gradually dominated the news less and less. The Air Force reduced the number of flights. Some native forest runners gave up the search and several soldiers had to be relieved after contracting jungle diseases.
Because sometimes an object of the children or a possible trace was found, no one wanted to give up the search. The children are of indigenous origin and know the forest well, which makes their chances of survival much better than those of a city child.
The army did decide to change its search strategy last week, Colombian media reported this weekend in the first reconstructions. Based on a map with all traces found, the military now assumed that Lesly had gone looking for a river, along which indigenous settlements can often be found. Based on this new theory, closer to the crash site was sought.
In the end, it turned out that the children were indeed hiding just 5 kilometers from the crash site. On Friday morning, the investigators spoke to residents of an indigenous hamlet, who said they had seen children walking in the woods. Indigenous members of the search mission found the four a few hours later: lying on the ground under a homemade canopy of leaves. They looked disoriented and were too weak to speak, but after a few moments of bewilderment, the eldest began to cry with relief, told a news site sleuth Cambio.
One seeker stayed with the children, while another ran to the military. They could then play the redeeming code word over their radios four times: ‘Milagro. Milagro. Milagro. Milagro.A ‘miracle’ for every child found alive. An army helicopter picked up the four and took them to Calamar, a jungle town at the end of a highway that leads into the forest. How exactly they managed to survive is not yet clear.
Reunited with father
Colombian President Gustavo Petro – just back from peace talks in Havana, where he agreed a ceasefire with guerrilla group ELN – exulted on Friday that “we are living a magical day today”. Of the children, the left-wing president said: “They were alone, they themselves set an example of survival that will go down in history. These children are the children of peace and the children of Colombia.”
We are experiencing a magical day today
Gustavo Petro president Colombia
This weekend the children were flown to a military hospital in Bogotá and were also visited by Petro. But above all, they could be reunited with their father in the capital.
Weeks before the plane crash, he had fled his native area after death threats from an armed group. The rest of the family wanted to travel to him in early May to start a new life in the big city. The five now get that chance, albeit without their mother who died in an accident. And in an outside world that – once they have recovered – will want to know everything about their forty days in the forest.