Three children and a newborn baby were miraculously found alive after wandering the Colombian Amazon for 17 days after a plane crash. The children are 13 years old sister and 9, 4 and 11 months old brothers.
Three adult bodies were found after the crash, which is believed to have occurred due to mechanical failure on May 1.
The babies were found more than two weeks after the crash of the small aircraft, where they were traveling with their mother, who was found dead as well as the other two adults on board. “A joy for the country,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro exclaimed on Wednesday, announcing the discovery of the children. More than a hundred soldiers aided by sniffer dogs had set out on the trail of the little ones. Rescue teams had discovered a makeshift shelter made of sticks and branches, sparking hopes of finding at least one survivor. For two weeks the children wandered in the virgin forest between the department of Caqueta, where the small plane was found, and that of Guaviare, in southern Colombia. The vehicle, a Cessna 206, had disappeared from radar on May 1st near San José di Guaviare, where it was supposed to head.
More than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs had crossed the jungle between the departments of Caquetá, where the plane landed, and Guaviare, both in the south of the country. The military said search efforts intensified after rescuers came across a “makeshift shelter built of sticks and branches”, leading them to believe there were survivors.
The children are Lesly Mucutuy, 13, Soleiny Mucutuy, nine, Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, four, and Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutoy, 11 months. In photographs released by the military, scissors and a hair tie could be seen among the branches on the jungle floor. A baby’s bottle and half-eaten fruit were also found. Soldiers found the bodies of the pilot and two adults who were flying from a jungle location to San Jose del Guaviare, a major city in Colombia’s Amazon rainforest, on Monday and Tuesday.
The mother of the four children was named Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia. Three helicopters were used to help search for the children, one of which broadcast a recorded message from the children’s grandmother in the Huitoto language telling them to stop moving in the jungle. The height and thickness of the trees made it more difficult to spot the children from above, with some shrubs reaching over 50 meters in height. Wild animals and heavy rains have also prolonged the search, with conditions in the jungle considered dangerous.
