4 Kids — Including a Baby — Who Disappeared After Their Plane Crashed in the Amazon Are Found Alive
Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the children’s time in the jungle an example of "total survival that will be remembered in history"
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Four children — including a baby — who spent over a month alone in the Amazon following a plane crash have been found alive.
The siblings, who were found wandering the Columbian jungle on Friday, were the only survivors of a May 1 plane crash that left every other passenger, including their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, dead, CNN reported.
According to the outlet, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the children — Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 13, Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 4, and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy — survived like “children of the jungle.”
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Petro added that the youngsters, who were still together when they were discovered, were able to survive for 40 days in the Amazon because of “their learning from indigenous families and their learning of living in the jungle,” per CNN.
He also said that their time in the jungle was an example of “total survival that will be remembered in history."
The children’s rescue, which Petro said was a “joy for the whole country” in a tweet, was the result of a military-led, deep-forest search operation, per ABC News.
Until Friday, the search only recovered clues like footprints and a dirty diaper. The Colombian Defense Ministry said in a tweet, however, that it “never stopped looking for them until the miracle came.”
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Petro also said that upon their discovery, the children were very weak and in need of food, per CNN.
“The most important thing now is what the doctors say,” he continued, according to the outlet. “Their health condition must have been stressed. We need to check their mental state too.”
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On Saturday morning, the children were taken to the Military Transport Air Command in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city, on an air ambulance, where they received evaluations from medics on board, per BBC.
María Fátima Valencia, the missing children’s grandmother, said she was going to “hug all of them” as soon as the children are moved from Bogotá to their home city, Villavicencio, according to CNN.
"I’m going to encourage them, I’m going to push them forward," she said. "I need them here."
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