Amazing Story of Survival

June 28, 2023

By Dick Durose

Amazing Story of Survival 

Four siblings, ages thirteen, nine, four, and eleven months, survived the crash of their small private plane in the jungles of Columbia on May 31.  They were traveling with four adults, including their mother, who survived the initial crash but succumbed to her injuries four days later.  Knowing she was weak and about to succumb she urged her oldest son “You guys get out of here. Use the knowledge we taught you.”

The fact that all four of the children survived on their own for forty days in the wilderness is being called a miracle in the jungle by the local press.

Searchers found the plane two weeks after the crash but were puzzled by the fact the children were no longer with the plane.  One hundred and fifty searchers set out from the crash site to find them. They were found on June 9^th, tired and insect bitten, but otherwise in good condition.  General Pedro Sanchez of the Police Department commented that the search in the dense jungle was like looking for a flea in a huge rug that moves in unpredictable directions.  Throughout the next five weeks, searchers found signs of the children such as makeshift shelters, half eaten fruit and a footprint in the mud.

The children, members of the Huitoto Indigenous group, relied on knowledge taught by their mother to survive.  They found edible fruit and seeds, having been trained to distinguish safe from unsafe plants.  In addition, they had cassava flour that was being transported on the plane. All the children are expected to remain hospitalized in Bogota for at least a week.  The Organization of Indigenous People of the Columbian Amazon said in a statement, “the children’s survival is the result of the tradition of teaching children about their natural environment which starts at an early age”.  The story of the four children surviving the plane crash and living for forty days in the jungle is remarkable.  It demonstrates the wisdom of the indigenous tribes of South America even in today’s modern world.