Current:Home > StocksMother of 4 children lost in Amazon for 40 days initially survived plane crash, oldest sibling says -MoneyMatrix
Mother of 4 children lost in Amazon for 40 days initially survived plane crash, oldest sibling says
View
Date:2025-04-15 11:21:12
The four Indigenous children who survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle after their plane crashed have shared limited but harrowing details of their ordeal with their family, including that their mother survived the crash for days before she died.
The kids, aged 13, 9 and 4 years and 11 months, are expected to remain for at least two weeks in a hospital receiving treatment after their rescue Friday, but some are already speaking and wanting to do more than lying on a bed, according to family members.
Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, told reporters outside the hospital Sunday that the oldest of the four surviving children — 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy — told him their mother was alive for about four days after the plane crashed on May 1 in the Colombian jungle.
Ranoque said before she died, the mother likely would have told them: "go away," apparently asking them to leave the wreckage site to survive. He provided no more details.
Fidencio Valencia, a child's uncle, told media outlet Noticias Caracol the children were starting to talk and one of them said they hid in tree trunks to protect themselves in a jungle area filled with snakes, animals and mosquitoes. He said they were exhausted.
"They at least are already eating, a little, but they are eating," he said after visiting them at the military hospital in Bogota, Colombia. On Saturday, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez had said the children were being rehydrated and couldn't eat food yet.
Later, Valencia provided new details of the children's recovery two days after the rescue: "They have been drawing. Sometimes they need to let off steam." He said family members are not talking a lot with them to give them space and time to recover from the shock.
The children were traveling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare when the plane went down.
The Cessna single-engine propeller plane was carrying three adults and the four children when the pilot declared an emergency due to engine failure. The small aircraft fell off the radar a short time later and a search for survivors began.
Dairo Juvenal Mucutuy, another uncle, told local media that one of kids said he wanted to start walking.
"Uncle, I want shoes, I want to walk, but my feet hurt," Mucutuy said the child told him.
"The only thing that I told the kid (was), 'when you recover, we will play soccer,'" he said.
Authorities and family members have said the family survived eating cassava flour and seeds, and that some familiarity with the rainforest's fruits were also key to their survival. The kids are members of the Huitoto Indigenous group.
After being rescued on Friday, the children were transported in a helicopter to Bogota and then to the military hospital, where President Gustavo Petro, government and military officials, as well as family members met with the children on Saturday.
An air force video released Friday showed a helicopter using lines to pull the youngsters up because it couldn't land in the dense rainforest where they were found. The military on Friday tweeted pictures showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets. One of the soldiers held a bottle to the smallest child's lips.
Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who was in charge of the rescue efforts, said that the children were found 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from the crash site in a small forest clearing. He said rescue teams had passed within 20 to 50 meters (66 to 164 feet) of where the children were found on a couple of occasions but had missed them.
Two weeks after the crash, on May 16, a search team found the plane in a thick patch of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the small children were nowhere to be found.
Soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, hoping that it would help sustain the children. Planes flying over the area fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used speakers that blasted a message recorded by the siblings' grandmother telling them to stay in one place.
Colombia's army sent 150 soldiers with dogs into the area, where mist and thick foliage greatly limited visibility. Dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes also joined the search.
Ranoque, the father of the youngest children, said the rescue shows how as an "Indigenous population, we are trained to search" in the middle of the jungle.
"We proved the world that we found the plane... we found the children," he added.
Some Indigenous community members burned incense as part of a ceremony outside the Bogota military hospital Sunday to give thanks for the rescue of the kids.
Luis Acosta, coordinator of the Indigenous guard that was part of the search in the Amazon, said the children were found as part of what he called a "combination of ancestral wisdom and Western wisdom... between a military technique and a traditional technique."
The Colombian government, which is trying to end internal conflicts in the country, has highlighted the joint work of the military and Indigenous communities to find the children.
- In:
- Plane Crash
- Colombia
- Children
veryGood! (2532)
Related
- Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
- North Carolina Rep. McHenry, who led House through speaker stalemate, won’t seek reelection in 2024
- How Margot Robbie Stood Up to Oppenheimer Producer to Make Barbenheimer Happen
- DeSantis wants to cut 1,000 jobs, but asks for $1 million to sue over Florida State’s football snub
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- Midwest mystery: Iowa man still missing, 2 weeks after semi holding baby pigs was found on highway
- House Speaker Johnson is insisting on sweeping border security changes in a deal for Ukraine aid
- Can you answer these 60 Christmas trivia questions on movies, music and traditions?
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- European soccer body UEFA pledges at UN to do more to promote human rights and fight discrimination
Ranking
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- DeSantis wants to cut 1,000 jobs, but asks for $1 million to sue over Florida State’s football snub
- Gold Bars found in Sen. Bob Menendez's New Jersey home linked to 2013 robbery, NBC reports
- Former top staffer of ex-congressman George Santos: You are a product of your own making
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- US officials want ships to anchor farther from California undersea pipelines, citing 2021 oil spill
- Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree goes to No. 1 — after 65 years
- Kylie Kelce Gives a Nod to Taylor Swift With Heartwarming Video of Daughters Wyatt and Bennett
Recommendation
Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
Serena Williams Reveals Her Breastmilk Helped Treat the Sunburn on Her Face
'Past Lives,' 'May December' lead nominations for Independent Spirit Awards
Mexican gray wolf at California zoo is recovering after leg amputation: 'Huge success story'
Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
Jonathan Majors’ accuser said actor’s ‘violent temper’ left her fearful before alleged assault
Denny Laine, founding member of the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney’s Wings, dead at 79
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai urges world to confront Taliban’s ‘gender apartheid’ against women