COLUMBIA: A mom told the kids to leave the Amazon plane crash site so they could survive

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Father of Colombian children who survived 40 days alone in the jungle says their survival is a ‘miraculous’, ITV News reports

The father of the youngest of the four children who survived 40 days alone in the Amazon after a plane crash says their mother survived at first, and told them to leave to survive.

Three babies and a baby managed to survive in the dense rainforest for weeks before they were found by Colombian soldiers in Solano Jungle, Caqueta State, on Friday.

The children were traveling from the Amazonian village of Araraquara to San Jose del Guaviare when their plane crashed, eventually killing all three adults on board.

Manuel Ranuck, the father of the two young children, told reporters outside the hospital where the children were recovering on Sunday that the eldest — 13-year-old Leslie Jacobombaire Mokotoi — had told him the mother-in-law was still alive for about four days after the accident. .

It is likely that the mother had told them to “go away,” Mr. Ranock said before her death, apparently telling them to leave the wreck site to survive.

One of the children said that the children told their families that they hid in the logs to survive in a forest area full of snakes, animals and mosquitoes.

The plane carrying the children crashed in early May. Credit: A.P

Fidencio Valencia, one of the children’s uncles, told media Noticias Caracol that the children started talking after their ordeal, and someone told him they hid in boxes to protect themselves.

Authorities and family members said that the indigenous children’s knowledge of the rainforest fruits helped them survive while extensively searching for them.

Officials praised the bravery of the eldest, who they said had some knowledge of how to survive in the rainforest and guided the children through their ordeal.

Manuel Ranoc, father of two of the youngest indigenous children, speaks outside the hospital in Bogota where they are receiving treatment. Credit: A.P

The children, members of the Huitoto people, between the ages of 13, 9, 4, and 11 months, ate fruit, seeds, and cassava flour to survive.

The Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, called them “Children of the Forest” as he praised the four young men’s extraordinary survival.

They are expected to remain in hospital for at least two weeks of treatment after their rescue.

Military personnel and indigenous leaders stand by as rescued children arrive in Bogota. Credit: A.P

How the Children of the Forest Survived 40 Days in the Amazon

The four children were traveling from the Amazonian village of Araraquara to San Jose del Guaviare when the plane crashed in the early hours of May 1.

The single-engine propeller Cessna was carrying three adults and four children when the pilot declared an emergency due to engine failure.

Cassava flour has been photographed being used to make flatbread in Cuba. Credit: A.P

The small plane fell off radar after a short time and a search began for survivors.

Two weeks after the crash, on May 16, a search party found the plane in a thick patch of rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the young children were nowhere to be found.

Two of the three seats occupied by children remained in place and upright despite the crash, according to a report, while a child seat was dislodged from the airframe.

Sensing the children might still be alive, the Colombian military stepped up searches and sent 150 soldiers with their dogs to the area, where fog and thick foliage greatly reduced visibility.

Dozens of volunteers from indigenous tribes have also joined the search.

As the search progresses, the soldiers find small clues that lead them to believe the children are still alive, including a pair of footprints, a baby bottle, diapers, and pieces of fruit that appear to have been bitten by humans.

Soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the woods, hoping it would help support the children.

Aircraft flying over the area fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used loudspeakers that blew out a message recorded by the siblings’ grandmother telling them to stay in one place.

Watch ITV News’ Sally Biddulph report on this extraordinary children’s rescue

General Pedro Sanchez, who was in charge of the rescue effort, said the children were found 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the crash site in a small forest on June 9.

He said rescue teams passed within 20 to 50 meters (66 to 164 feet) of where the children were found on two occasions, but missed.

“The minors were really very vulnerable,” General Sanchez said. “And surely their strength was only enough to breathe or reach for a small fruit to feed themselves or drink a drop of water in the forest.”

Video released by the Air Force on Friday showed a helicopter using lines to pull the pups up because it could not land in the dense rainforest where they were found.

The army released pictures showing a group of soldiers and volunteers with children wrapped in thermal blankets. One of the soldiers held a bottle to the lips of a small child.

After the rescue, they begin to recount their ordeal of survival.

The children’s uncle said they told him they had managed to salvage some food from the plane wreckage to help them survive.

“When the plane crashed, they pulled (from the wreckage) Farina and with that they survived,” Valencia told reporters.

Farinha is a cassava flour eaten by people in the Amazon region.

“After the Farinha ran out, they started eating the seeds,” Valencia continued.

The timing was also on the children’s side. Children were also able to eat the fruit because “the forest was in harvest,” said Astrid Caceres, president of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare.

The children also told the officials that they had spent some time with a dog in the woods while they were alone, but said it had gone missing.

The dog was a rescue named Wilson, and he was taken into the rainforest by soldiers to help with the search. The army was still searching for the dog, a Belgian Shepherd, as of Saturday.

Military personnel unload one of the four children after they are rescued from the rainforest. Credit: A.P

President Petro called the children “an example of survival” and predicted that their epic would “remain in history”.

“The children are fine,” Damaris Mokotoi, the children’s aunt, told the radio station despite suffering from dehydration and insect bites, adding that they have been offered mental health services.

Mr Pietro said he had believed for a while that one of the nomadic tribes still roaming the remote area where the plane went down had rescued the children, and had little contact with the authorities.

“The forest saved them,” he said. “They are the children of the jungle, and now they are also the children of Colombia.”

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