3 children aged 13, 11, and 4, along with an 11-month-old infant, have reportedly been found alive in the jungles of Colombia after miraculously surviving a plane crash that killed all 3 adults on board.
Together, these durable youths stuck it out for over 2 weeks on their own, sheltering in simple hutches made of palm fronds and sticks and eating wild fruit.
Sounding like the beginning of a young adult novel series, the crash took place on May 1st on a route between the cities of Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province.
It took 2 weeks for Colombian military and rescue units to locate the crashed Cessna 206 light aircraft.
“We think that the children who were aboard the plane are alive. We have found traces at a different location, away from the crash site, and a place where they may have sheltered,” Colonel Juan José López said on Wednesday.
The units followed a trail of cast-away items, including a baby bottle, hair scrunchies, scissors, and plastic wrapping, to several areas where they are believed to have sheltered and found food to eat.
On Wednesday, the president tweeted that all four children, belonging to the Huitoto Indigenous people, had been located, but deleted the tweet after learning that the source of the claim could not be verified by the Colombian Child Welfare Agency.
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For their part, the agency said they believed the sources were reliable.
“We are still missing that very, very last link that confirms all our hopes. Until we have the photo of the kids we won’t be stopping,” Director of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), Astrid Caceres, told CNN. “We are not underestimating the information we received but we want to confirm [directly] ourselves.”
Several other sources, the BBC reports, say the children have been found, including Avianline, a local plane operator, and local Huitoto radio stations. The word is that they were found by one of Avianline’s pilots who landed in the village of Cachiporro, and that it was here the pilot heard they had been found in a remote location called Dumar, and were being transported to Chachiporro via boat.
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This is extremely rugged and rural rainforest terrain, and the company said that heavy rains may have made the river difficult to navigate.
One thing is for certain, their indigenous knowledge of the forest allowed them to survive an ordeal in which many people would surely perish.
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How astounding, I absolutely can’t wait for the made for television movie of this ordeal!! 🙂
It wasn’t their time to go….