How rescuers found children who had been missing in the jungle for 40 days

The military and tribes have spent more than a month searching for four children who survived a plane crash in Colombia’s Amazon jungle. Their grandmother’s newscast, leaflets and survival kits were dropped in the forest … the action gathered more than 100 people.

The operation was baptized “Hope”. Four children who wandered for 40 days following a plane crash were found in Colombia’s Amazon jungle on Friday.

First from the Uitoto native group, Lesly, Soleiny, Tien Noriel and Cristin were extracted from the forest, flown by helicopter to the city of San Jose del Guerrier, and then airlifted to Bogotá on Saturday. Once they arrived, they were taken out on stretchers and loaded into several ambulances. This good news ends weeks of searching for help.

The children’s journey began on May 1 when the small Cessna 206 plane experienced engine trouble minutes after takeoff. The plane was carrying the pilot, a native chief, four children aged 13, 9 and 4 and an 11-month-old baby at the time, and their mother. Research began later, bringing together veterans and indigenous people from communities near the crash site.

Their grandmother’s message was broadcast

Two weeks have passed and the plane has not been found. The pilot, the native chief and the mother of the family were found dead, but rescue teams found fruit in the crash zone, giving them hope for the children’s survival. More than 100 soldiers were mobilized in the operation, during which they found traces of the children’s passage, such as a makeshift shelter made of sticks and branches.

The Air Force joined the operation with three helicopters. In one of these devices, a loudspeaker “capable of covering an area of ​​approximately 1,500 meters” broadcast a message recorded by the children’s grandmother.

In the Uitoto language, the woman asked her grandchildren that they were needed and to stay where they were so rescue workers could find them.

Survival kits were abandoned in the forest

On May 20, the army said it had dropped around 100 survival kits containing food and water in the jungle. Two days later, the president announced that 10,000 leaflets would be dropped from helicopters, in Spanish and in local languages, on how to contact emergency services.

In late May, Gen. Pedro Sánchez told W radio that “according to evidence” gathered so far, including a footprint, the children were alive. “If they were dead, of course it would be easier to find them because they would be motionless”, he said, adding that sniffer dogs would “guide us”.

Pedro Sanchez estimated his units were 100 meters or less from the children, but rain, vegetation and swampy terrain made the search difficult.

A missing dog

They were conducted with the help of sniffer dogs. This Thursday, one of them got lost in the vegetation. Wilson, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd, “disappeared (…) in the forests of Caqueta and Querria (south),” the army said in a statement. According to the militaryOne of the “hypotheses” surrounding the dog’s disappearance is that “due to the complexity of the terrain, humidity and unfavorable weather conditions, he may have become disoriented”.

Finally, the four children were found on Friday, “a magical day”, President Gustavo Pedro commented. The children “were alone, they succeeded on their own. This is an example of total survival that will go down in history. So these children today are the children of peace and the children of Colombia”, he praised as “talented”. Coordination between the military and the natives during the search.

According to the military, rescuers found the siblings about 5 km west of the crash site. “They are weak. Let the doctors make their prognosis,” commented Gustavo Pedro. The rescuers of this “Operation Faith” traveled nearly 2,656 km in this impenetrable jungle for over a month.