A baby is among four children found alive in the Amazon forest more than two weeks after surviving a plane crash that killed their mother and two other people, Colombian leaders confirmed Thursday.
“After arduous search efforts by our Military Forces, we have found alive the 4 children who had disappeared due to the plane crash,” President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday, declaring “joy for the country.“
The Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) said the May 1 crash, which claimed the lives of three adults, took place on the border between Caquetá and Guaviare in the southern central region of the country, about 250 miles south of the country’s capital of Bogota.
The agency said Wednesday the four boys and girls had “been found alive and that they are also in good health,” and their priority is now reuniting the children with their families.
As of Thursday morning, officials had not released the location where the children were discovered or the identities of the adults who died.
Photos released by the Colombian army, which deployed more than 100 soldiers and search dogs to locate the children, show hair ties, scissors and a baby bottle found Wednesday on the jungle forest floor in a rural area of the municipality of Solano.
Engine failure
According to a preliminary investigation by officials, Avianline Charters Flight HK 280, was carrying seven people between Araracuara in Amazonas province and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare, when it apparently suffered an engine failure before it went down, killing the pilot, another adult and the children’s mother.
The plane, a Cessna 206, along with the bodies of the adults, were found Monday in a forest, officials said.
The four children− ages 11 months, 4, 9 and 13 − are believed to have ventured into the Amazon rainforest where, according to Global outlet DW News, they “survived on fruits and built shelters using sticks and branches that were discovered by the rescue personnel.”
Avianline Charters reported the children “were being transported by boat downriver and that they were all alive,” CBS News reported Thursday.
The identities of the dead have not yet been released by government officials.
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Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
