All You Need To Know About Colombia’s 4 Indigenous Children Discovered Alive 40 Days After Plane Crash

Four indigenous youngsters who went missing 40 days ago after surviving a tiny aircraft crash in the Amazon rainforest were discovered alive on Friday, according to a statement from Colombian officials on Saturday.

According to President Gustavo Petro, the kids were alone when they were discovered and are now getting medical care.Then he went on to say that the kids are “examples of survival” and that their tale “will remain in history.”

President Petro had already tweeted on May 18 that the kids had been located. He then erased the post, alleging a government agency had given him incorrect information.

The president said on Friday that he had first thought the kids had been saved by one of the nomadic tribes that still wander the isolated area of the forest where the aircraft crashed and have little interaction with the government.

Petro clarified, however, that one of the rescue dogs that the military sent into the bush had really discovered the kids first.

No information on how the kids survived on their own for so long was immediately made public.

the accident in its entirety
The Cessna single-engine propeller aircraft carrying six people and a pilot made an emergency declaration owing to an engine failure in the early hours of May 1. This is when the tragedy occurred.

Shortly after the little aircraft vanished from radar, a desperate hunt for survivors started.

The aircraft was discovered in a dense area of the jungle two weeks after the disaster, on May 16, and the remains of the three adults on board were retrieved, but the little children were not present.

From the Amazonian hamlet of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare, a little town on the border of the jungle, the group of four kids had been journeying with their mother.

They belong to the Huitoto tribe, and according to authorities, the older kids in the group knew how to live in the rain forest.

Army personnel were sent to look for the kids.
Sensing that they could still be alive, Colombia’s army intensified its search for the four siblings, aged 13, 9, 4, and 11 months, and flew 150 troops into the region with dogs to find them. Numerous Indigenous tribal volunteers also contributed to the hunt.

The youngsters were bundled in thermal blankets as the troops and volunteers posed for photos with them, according to images the military posted on Friday. The tiniest youngster was given a bottle by one of the troops.

Later, the air force posted a video on Twitter that showed troops boarding a chopper with the kids using a queue before taking off in the pitch-black.

The tweet provided just the information that the plane was travelling to San Jose del Guaviare.

The military leadership of Colombia said on its Twitter account that “the combination of our efforts made this possible.”

Soldiers in helicopters dropped cartons of food into the forest in the course of the search in an area where vision is severely hindered by mist and dense vegetation in the hopes that it would help the kids survive.

Rescuers used megaphones to blast a message recorded by the siblings’ grandmother instructing them to remain in one spot while searching for the siblings using flares fired from aircraft flying over the bush at night.

Officials did not specify how far away from the collision scene the kids were when they were discovered. However, the crews had been looking 4.5 kilometres (just over 3 miles) away from the location where the little aircraft crashed onto the forest floor.

A pair of footprints, a baby bottle, diapers, and bits of fruit that seemed to have been nibbled by humans were among the little clues that troops discovered in the bush as the hunt for the children continued.

They were spared by the woods, Petro added. They were born in the bush, but they are now also Colombian citizens.