How 4 Children Survived In Deadly Amazon Forest For 40 Days After Plane Crash?

On May 1, a plane carrying seven people crashed in the thick Amazon jungle in Colombia due to an engine failure. The remains of the aircraft were discovered two weeks later.

The incident occurred when they were travelling from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare.

However, there we only three bodies inside the plane while four children went missing. In what could be considered many as a miracle, they survived the crash. And they have been discovered a few days ago.

The children are 13-year-old Lesly Jacobo Bonbaire, 9-year-old Solecni Ranoque Mucutuy, four-year-old Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, and 12-month-old Cristian Neryman Ranoque Mucutuy. The stunning part of the story is that these kids including a one-year-old survived in the deadly jungle for 40 days!

Going by the pictures shared by Colombia's military, soldiers are seen with the four children in the middle of the jungle.

Amidst a perilous and harsh environment filled with jaguars, snakes, and other predators, along with armed drug smuggling groups, the brave siblings encountered an extraordinary challenge.

This has led many wondering - how did they survive in the forest for 40 days.

Well, they belong to the indigenous group Huitoto who know to traverse the jungle and identify edible fruits, BBC reported. They managed to survive eating seeds, roots and plants they knew were edible.

"The survival of the children is a sign of the knowledge and relationship with the natural environment that is taught starting in the mother's womb," according to the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia (OPIAC).

According to Luis Acosta of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), the resilient "children of the bush," as affectionately referred to by their grandfather Narcizo Mucutuy, managed to endure their ordeal by consuming yucca flour found on the ill-fated plane, as well as relying on provisions from relief packages air-dropped by search helicopters. In addition, their deep knowledge of the Amazon region enabled them to identify and consume various edible seeds, fruits, roots, and plants, according to a report in AFP.

Acosta, who was involved in the search operations, stated that the children possessed a strong "spiritual force." "We have a particular connection to nature," Javier Betancourt, another ONIC leader, told AFP. He added, "The world needs this kind of special relation with nature, to favor those like the Indigenous who live in the jungle and take care of it."

How The Soldiers Tracked The Kids?
The search operation was carried out by soldiers and indigenous trackers for 20 days, side by side. Over 100 soldiers from Indigenous territories in the departments of Caqueta, Putumayo, Meta and Amazonas worked alongside 100 soldiers in the operation. Also, sniffer dogs were used to track the kids.

While food supplies were being dropped off in the jungle to ensure that the children get food supplies, planes flew over the jungle firing flares to help search crews on the ground at night, Sky reported. In addition to it, the rescuers played the recorded message by the siblings' grandmother asking them to stay together in one place.

They were instructions written in both Spanish and the kids' indigenous language where they were given survival tips. As the days passed the people on the mission discovered important clues - a baby bottle, diapers and pieces of fruit that indicated that they were alive.

President Gustavo Petro, who expressed his joy to see the kids alive, claimed that one of the rescue dogs tracked them.