Colombia plane crash mother was alive for four days and told children to ‘leave her to survive’

Four children survive for 40 days in Amazon jungle after plane crash

The Colombian mother, whose children miraculously survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle, was alive for four days after a plane crash, a latest testimony revealed.

The four children were found alive by authorities on Friday, over a month after the small plane crashed in the jungle after going off the radar on 1 May. The children survived by eating cassava flour, authorities said.

The siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, are undergoing treatment at the military hospital in Bogota, Colombia, but have started detailing their ordeal.

Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, told reporters outside the hospital on Sunday that the oldest of the four siblings – 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy – had described to him how their mother was alive for about four days after the plane crashed.

Mr Ranoque said before she died, the mother likely would have told them: “Go away”, apparently “asking them to leave the wreckage site to survive”.

Authorities have not said anything about this version yet but details of what happened to the youngsters, and what they did, have been emerging gradually.

Military personnel unload from a plane one of four Indigenous children who were missing after a deadly plane crash at the military air base in Bogota, Colombia, Saturday, 10 June 2023. The children survived a small plane crash 40 days ago and had been the subject of an intense search in the jungle. (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

This handout picture released by the Colombian Presidency shows members of the Colombian Army checking one of the four Indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon rainforest following a plane crash in Bogota. (Colombian Presidency/AFP via Get)

One of the four Indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon forest following a plane crash, is stretchered out of a plane upon landing at the CATAM military base in Bogota on 10 June 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)

The youngest child, Cristin, turned a year old while the siblings were roaming alone in the jungle. The children were “malnourished but fully conscious and lucid” when found, the authorities said at the time.

Henry Guerrero, an Indigenous man who was part of the search group, told reporters that the children were found with two small bags containing some clothes, a towel, a flashlight, two cellphones, a music box and a soda bottle.

He said they used the bottle to collect water in the jungle, and he added that after they were rescued the youngsters complained of being hungry.

“They wanted to eat rice pudding, they wanted to eat bread,” he said.

Fidencio Valencia, a child’s uncle, told the media outlet Noticias Caracol that 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.

Colombia's first lady Veronica Alcocer (L) and Sofia Petro (R), daughter of Colombian president Gustavo Petro, visiting one of the four Indigenous children. (Colombian Presidency/AFP via Get)

In this photo released by Colombia's Armed Forces Press Office, soldiers and Indigenous men pose for a photo with the four Indigenous children who were missing after a deadly plane crash, in the Solano jungle, Caqueta state, Colombia. (AP)

“They at least are already eating, a little, but they are eating,” he said after visiting them.

The children were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to the town of San Jose del Guaviare when the plane went down.

The Cessna single-engine propeller plane was carrying three adults and 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, which closed after the children were found on Friday.

Additional reporting by agencies