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These are scenes that hardly anyone in Colombia would have thought possible: Four children who were missing for 40 days after a plane crash in the Amazon are rescued by helicopter. Early Saturday morning, they reached the capital Bogotá on a military plane.
Yor William Cotua, Colombian military
general"I saw their faces, their eyes were full of hope and, frankly, I saw these children full of life. Their eyes were shining, they were happy, cheerful."
The story is like a miracle. On May 1, the Cessna crashed over the jungle with the children, her mother and two other adults on board. These pictures show the helpers shortly after they found the children: 13, nine and four years old, the youngest still a baby, it was one year old in the jungle. For weeks, the children were alone in a forest with poisonous plants, where, according to media reports, it rains 16 hours a day and is often pitch dark, in which snakes, Jaguars and cougars live.
But Pedro Sánchez, the commander of the search party, did not give up hope. For weeks, more than 200 soldiers and indigenous people combed through the dense jungle. In the end, with success. Even though all the adults and the pilot died in the crash, all four children are alive. Apparently they were wandering around near the crash site. The rescuers found her footprints, discovered a baby bottle, shoes, diapers, chewed fruit.
Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia
»They were on their own. They are an example of survival that will go down in history."
Now the children are receiving medical care.
Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia
»They were missing for 40 days, their health must be very unstable. They now need to be accustomed again to food that is not what they found in the jungle, which could complicate matters. And we need to take care of their mental health. They even had the baby with them."
The family members were beside themselves with joy when they learned that the children could be saved.
Fidencio Valencia, grandfather
»We are so happy! We couldn't sleep, we couldn't be happy, we couldn't talk. For us, this situation was like being in the dark. We went only for the sake of walking, lived only for the sake of life. The hope of finding them kept us alive. When the children were found, we felt joy again. We don't know what to do, but we will always be grateful to God."
According to the grandparents, it was a huge help to the children that they were familiar with the jungle. They learned to hunt and fish at an early age and knew how to collect edible plants.