Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed on Saturday that four children who spent 40 days in the jungle after their plane crashed were found alive.
In mid-May, Petro said that the Colombian armed forces found three children aged 13, 9, and 4 years old and one child aged 11 months old alive in the jungle of Caqueta department after their Cessna 206 light aircraft crashed on May 1. However, Petro said on Twitter later that he had deleted the message about these children because the information was not confirmed.
“A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle are found alive,” Petro said on Twitter.
Earlier in the day, the media reported that the children were dehydrated and suffered from insect bites.
The Cessna 206 light aircraft, headed from the town of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare in the Caqueta Department in the country’s south, reported an engine failure and sent a distress signal on May 1. Later, the plane was found after more than 370 hours of searching, the Civil Aviation Authority of Colombia said. The body of the pilot was found inside the plane, but the bodies of the co-pilot and five passengers, including four minors, were not in the aircraft or around it.
In mid-May, the Colombian military said that the armed forces found the bodies of the co-pilot and the mother of the four children, adding that the search for the children was underway in a hard-to-reach jungle area.
