Bogota: Four children who went missing after a plane crash in Colombia 40 days ago have been found safe in the Amazon jungle. President Gustavo Petro gave this information on Saturday. Speaking to reporters after returning to Bogota from Cuba, Petro said the massive search operation for the missing children was over. He said that the rescuers were able to find the children after 40 days of hard work and these children are now under medical observation. Petro went to Cuba to sign a ceasefire agreement with representatives of the rebel National Liberation Army.
He said that these children’s “survival for 40 days even in such extreme conditions is no less than a miracle” and their story “will be recorded in the pages of history”. Petro did not share any details on how they survived. The four children were among six passengers on board the single-engine Cessna plane that crashed on May 1 due to engine failure. The plane had lost radar contact and the government launched a massive search operation to rescue the passengers.
Rescuers found the wreckage of the plane on May 16 in the dense jungles of the Amazon during a search operation. The bodies of the plane’s pilot and two adult passengers were also recovered from the wreckage, but the four children on board could not be traced. Subsequently, the Colombian army sent 150 soldiers with sniffer dogs into the jungle to search for the four, nine, 11 and 13-year-olds. Dozens of members of tribal communities also cooperated in the search operation.
On Friday, the army shared some pictures on Twitter, in which these children wrapped in blankets are seen with soldiers and tribal volunteers. In one picture, a soldier is seen feeding the youngest of these babies with a bottle. Later, the Air Force tweeted a video in which soldiers are seen lifting the children into the helicopter. It wrote that the helicopter had left for San Jose del Guaviare with the children. During the search operation, the army used to drop food packets at different places in the forest in the hope that these children would be able to feed and survive.
Not only this, the soldiers played a recorded message by the grandmother of the four children, in which she asked them to stick together and not lose heart. During the search, rescuers found small clues in the woods, such as the children’s footprints, a bottle of milk, diapers and pieces of fruit, which led them to believe the children were still alive. Petro said, that ‘the forest saved them (the children). They are the children of the jungle and now they are the children of all of Colombia.
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