Missing for weeks – children rescued after plane crash in Colombian rainforest – News

• Four children killed in a plane crash have been found alive in the Colombian jungle and rescued.
• The small plane crashed in southern Colombia about six weeks ago.
• Since then, the four children, aged 13, nine and four, and a 12-month-old baby have been missing.

«We found them together and they are weak. They are now being examined by doctors. That we found them makes me very happy,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro told journalists.

The children, members of an indigenous tribe, are among a group of seven people who crashed a Cessna in the Amazon on May 1st. The pilot and two adults were killed. Since then, the children have wandered alone through the jungle. The bodies of the three adults were found by the army at the crash site.

Transferred to Bogotá by helicopter

According to the army, the rescue workers found the siblings about 5 kilometers west of the accident site.

Legend:

Members of the indigenous Taita community were standing at the Catam Air Base in Bogotá when the children were flown in.

Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters

Army paramedics “immediately tended to and stabilized the four siblings,” according to the Department of Defense. They were rescued by helicopter and flown to the city of San Jose del Guaviare (285 kilometers southeast of Bogotá) in the middle of the night.

“Operation Hope” successful

Rescue teams had searched for the children on the ground and in the air for weeks. More than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs and dozens of local residents have been searching for the children amid thick vegetation since the plane was spotted.

Also according to the army, the helpers of this “Operation Hope” covered almost 2656 km through the jungle in more than a month. The children’s chances of survival seemed to be getting smaller by the day. The region is also a strong zone of influence for the FARC dissidents, an armed group with which peace talks recently broke down.