Four children missing in Amazon found alive 40 days after plane crash killed three - including mother and pilot
10 June 2023, 07:45 | Updated: 10 June 2023, 07:53
Four children who went missing in the Amazon jungle following a plane crash which killed their mother, an indigenous leader, and the pilot, have been found alive nearly six weeks on.
The children - aged 13, nine, four, and 11 months - were discovered after 40 days in the rainforest by members of Colombia's military after an intensive search.
The family's plane came down during the early hours of May 1, with a trail of half eaten fruit leading from the wreckage hinting that the children were still alive.
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The children were evacuated from the rainforest by the military after being found and are now receiving medical attention, according to Colombia's President Gustavo Petro.
The siblings are said to be malnourished and insect bitten but otherwise healthy following their rescue.
Touching down in Columbia on Saturday morning, their discovery followed a false alarm last month, after the president mistakenly said they were safe - only to retract his statement.
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The accident, which saw the light aircraft come down in dense forest, killed everyone else onboard - including the children's mother, Magdalena Mucutui Valencia, the pilot and an indigenous leader.
It's reported the pilot had declared an emergency prior to disappearing off the radar, citing engine failure as the cause.
Now returning to Columbia by military aircraft, the children are said to be recovering well.
"It is a joy for the whole country," President Petro Tweeted on Friday.
"They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history."
The search saw 150 soldiers with dogs assisted by dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes attempt to locate the missing children.
It followed a search which saw the wreckage of the plane discovered, alongside the bodies of the three adults, on May 16.
