Four kids have been found ALIVE after miraculously surviving a plane crash and spending more than a month fending for themselves in the Amazon.
According to The New York Times, the siblings – 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9-year-old Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 4-year-old Ranoque Mucutuy, and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy – were traveling with their mom Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia and two others to San José del Guaviare on May 1. But things took a scary turn after the pilot reported an engine failure, declared an emergency, and the plane suddenly disappeared. When rescuers arrived at the wreckage site, three adult remains were found on board the aircraft. However, there was no sign of the kids anywhere.
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Soon local Indigenous communities and the Colombian military scoured the area for the young children. For a while, the search only uncovered some clues, including footprints and a dirty diaper. But the Colombian Defense Ministry noted in a tweet that it “never stopped looking for them until the miracle came.” And forty days later, they were finally found walking around the jungle on Friday.
Amazing news!!! As for how they survived in the Amazon for over a month alone? The New York Times reported that Colombian President Gustavo Petro revealed in a news conference:
“They fended for themselves. It is their knowledge from the Indigenous families, their knowledge on how to live in the jungle, that has saved them. They are children of the jungle. And now they are children of Colombia.”
He then added that the kids’ time in the jungle was “an example of total survival that will go down in history.” Upon their discovery, per CNN, Petro noted that they were “weak” and required food:
“The most important thing now is what the doctors say. Their health condition must have been stressed. We need to check their mental state too.”
As of Saturday morning, the four little ones were transported via an air ambulance to the Military Transport Air Command in Bogotá and received care from medics on board, BBC reported. The missing kids’ grandmother, María Fátima Valencia, is now waiting for her kids to be moved from Colombia’s capital city to their home in Villavicencio. According to CNN, she shared that she plans to “hug all of them,” adding:
“I’m going to encourage them, I’m going to push them forward. I need them here.”
Our hearts break for what these kids had to go through — not only losing their mother in a tragic accident but then having to survive alone for weeks. It must have been so scary at times. We’re keeping them in our thoughts as they recover and grieve this loss. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via ABC News/YouTube]
