BOGOTA(Reuters) – In a miraculous turn of events, four children from an Indigenous community in Colombia were discovered alive on Friday, more than five weeks after the small plane they were traveling in crashed deep within the country’s thick jungle. President Gustavo Petro confirmed the heartening news, stating that the siblings had been rescued by the military near the border of Caqueta and Guaviare provinces, close to the crash site.
The ill-fated Cessna 206 aircraft had been carrying a total of seven individuals on a flight from Araracuara airport in Caqueta province to San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province. In the early hours of May 1, the plane issued a distress signal due to engine failure. Tragically, three adults, including the children’s mother Magdalena Mucutuy, lost their lives in the crash, with their bodies recovered from the wreckage. However, the four surviving siblings, aged 13, 9, 4, and an infant who is now 12 months old, managed to survive the impact.
Narcizo Mucutuy, the children’s grandfather, expressed his immense joy upon learning of their rescue. “As the grandfather of my grandchildren who disappeared in the jungles of the Yari, I am extremely happy at this moment,” he said.
Photographs released by Colombia’s military depicted a group of soldiers with the four children amidst the dense jungle. President Petro took to Twitter to share his elation, exclaiming, “A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost in the Colombian jungle have been found alive.”
Petro had initially reported the discovery of the children on May 17 but later retracted the statement, citing unverified information. On Friday, he expressed his happiness at their retrieval, noting that the children had endured and defended themselves alone in the midst of the challenging jungle environment.
Rescue teams, aided by search dogs, had previously located discarded fruit that the children had relied upon for sustenance, as well as makeshift shelters fashioned from vegetation found in the jungle.
The rescue operations involved the coordinated efforts of Colombia’s army and air force, utilizing airplanes and helicopters to search for the missing children
