Miracle in Colombia. After 17 days in the Amazon junglefour indigenous children disappeared They were found alive after a plane crashPresident Gustavo Petro announced this Wednesday.
They are three minors 13, 9 and 4 years old and an 11 month old baby who were missing since May 1, when the aircraft they were traveling in apparently crashed due to a mechanical failure.
“After arduous search efforts by our Military Forces, we have found alive the 4 children who had disappeared due to the plane crash (…) A joy for the country,” the Colombian president said on Twitter.
Led by the military, the search efforts found the bodies of three died in the accident, including the pilot and the mother of the four brothers from the Huitoto ethnic group.
We deeply regret the death of MAGDALENA MUCUTUY VALENCIA, an indigenous Muinane, from the Puerto Sábalo community, who died in the middle of the plane crash between Caquetá and Guaviare. We extend our most sincere condolences and accompany her family members in her pain pic.twitter.com/BNhhgSAk4h
— OPIAC (@OPIAC_Amazonia) May 17, 2023
More than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs followed the trail of the minors and walked through the jungle between the southern departments of Guaviare and Caquetá, where the plane was left with the front part destroyed.
Petro did not report where the children were rescued or any other details of his experience while they were missing. The Army has not ruled on the rescue.
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.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 17, 2023
In a statement, the company Avianline Charters’s, owner of the crashed aircraft, assured that one of its pilots in the search area was informed about the discovery of the children who “they were being transported by boat down the river and that they were all alive”.
However, he also indicated that “there is nothing officially confirmed” and that the minors could be halfway due to electrical storms in the area that make the river difficult to navigate.
During the rescue operations the soldiers had found a “shelter built improvised with sticks and branches”so they suspected that there was at least one survivor.
Some scissors, hair ties, shoes, clothes and a bottle located in the middle of branches of the jungle served as an indication for the uniformed officers.
#The last | In development of the humanitarian operation to locate the Cessna 206 aircraft, missing since May 1, in the deep jungle between #Caqueta and #guaviare, our Special Forces maintain the search for the seven occupants. (1)#Always firm pic.twitter.com/Id4X6nIEwc
– Colombian Military Forces (@FuerzasMilCol) May 15, 2023
By land and air
Gigantic trees up to 40 meters, wild animals and heavy rain made the search difficult.
The Air Force joined the so-called “Operation Hope” with three helicopters that flew over the dense jungle for days.
One of them carried a speaker “capable of covering an area of about 1,500 meters” with a message recorded by the children’s grandmother. In the Huitoto language, the woman told her grandchildren that they were looking for them and asked them not to continue advancing through the jungle.
The authorities have not reported the reasons for the flight of the aboriginal family. According to the local press, the seventh passenger was a leader of that community.
The search for the four missing minors in the jungles of Caquetá intensifies, after the discovery of new clues that could give clues to their whereabouts.
The uniformed men found some scissors and some ‘bows’ that women usually use to hold the… pic.twitter.com/TDRuEC6shh– Ministry of Defense (@mindefense) May 17, 2023
In this region of difficult access by river and without highways, the inhabitants usually travel in private flights.
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According to the Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), the Huitotos live in “harmony” with the hostile conditions of the Amazon and they preserve traditions such as hunting, fishing and the gathering of wild fruits.
The pilot reported problems with the aircraft’s engine minutes before the accident, according to the official disaster response body.