COLOMBIA – After enduring a perilous 40-day ordeal in the depths of the Amazon jungle following a plane crash, the four children have shared details of their experience to their family.
The father of one child revealed that their mother managed to survive the initial crash for days before succumbing to her injuries.
The siblings, aged 13, 9, 4, and 1, are currently receiving medical treatment at a hospital following their rescue on Friday.
Four kids & baby who survived plane crash — ages 13, 9, 4 and 11 months — FOUND ALIVE after surviving in the Amazon jungle for 40 days, Colombian President says pic.twitter.com/AQNaNSbt6I
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 10, 2023
While expected to remain hospitalized for at least two weeks, some of the children are already expressing their desire to engage in activities beyond simply lying in bed, according to their relatives.
Manuel Ranoque, the father of the two youngest children, shared with journalists outside the hospital on Sunday the account he received from the eldest sibling, 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy. Lesly disclosed that their mother had managed to survive for approximately four days following the plane crash that occurred on May 1 in the Colombian jungle.
Ranoque said that before she died, the mother told the kids to leave the wreckage site in order to enhance their chances of survival.
“Before she died, she said to them, ‘Maybe you should go. You guys are going to see the kind of man your dad is, and he’s going to show you the same kind of great love that I have shown you,’ ” Ranoque said.
He did not provide further details and authorities have not yet commented on the account of the survivor.
Lost in the story is news that a search-and-rescue K9 that found clues as to where the children were, went missing during the mission. The dog remains missing in the jungle.
The children and their mother were en route from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to the town of San Jose del Guaviare when the Cessna single-engine propeller plane encountered engine failure, prompting the pilot to declare an emergency, officials said.
Shortly thereafter, the aircraft vanished from radar, prompting a search and rescue mission to locate any survivors.
