‘Children found alive’ weeks after plane crashed in jungle | World | News
Four children have been discovered alive in the Amazon jungle 40 days after the plane they were travelling in crashed.
Members of Colombia’s military found the children, who had been the subject of an intense search since the plane that was carrying them went down during the early hours of May 1.
The four children were alone when they were discovered by rescuers and are now receiving medical attention, according to Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, who spoke to the media in Bogota.
He hailed the children – aged 13, nine, four and 11 months – as an “example of survival” and said their story “will remain in history”.
There were three other adults on board the Cessna single-engine propeller plane with the children when it crashed, including the pilot, who were all killed in the disaster.
READ MORE: Two dead after small plane crashes in western New York
The pilot had declared an emergency due to engine failure before the aircraft went down and it dropped off the radar moments later.
A search team found the wreckage of the plane, along with the bodies of the three adults, on May 16 but the children remained missing.
After finding eaten fruit and improvised shelters fashioned from jungle vegetation, rescuers were optimistic that the children had survived.
The search was intensified as 150 soldiers with dogs, assisted by dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes, were sent into the area in a bid to track them down.
The military shared images on social media of soldiers and volunteers posing alongside the children, who had been wrapped up in thermal blankets.
On its Twitter account, Colombia’s military command wrote: “The union of our efforts made this possible.”
Mr Petro said: “A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost … in the Colombian jungle appeared alive.”
The president was earlier forced to apologise two weeks after the party went missing when he erroneously announced they had been discovered safe and well.
