“After the fariña ran out, they began to eat seeds,” Valencia said. Fariña is a cassava flour that people eat in the Amazon region. “When the plane crashed, they took out (of the wreckage) a fariña, and with that, they survived,” the children’s uncle, Fidencio Valencia told reporters outside the hospital. The small aircraft fell off the radar a short time later and a search for survivors began. The Cessna single-engine propeller plane was carrying three adults and the four children when the pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure.

They were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare when the plane crashed in the early hours of May 1. “But in general, the condition of the children is acceptable,” Velásquez said. Defense Minister Iván Velásquez told reporters the children were being rehydrated and cannot eat food yet. The members of the Huitoto people, aged 13, 9 and 4 years and 11 months, are expected to remain for a minimum of two weeks at a hospital receiving treatment after their rescue Friday.įamily members, President Gustavo Petro as well as government and military officials met the children Saturday at the hospital in Bogota, the capital. BOGOTA, Colombia - Four Indigenous children survived an Amazon plane crash that killed three adults and then braved the jungle for 40 days before being found alive by Colombian soldiers, bringing a happy ending to a search-and-rescue saga that captivated a nation and forced the usually opposing military and Indigenous people to work together.Ĭassava flour and some familiarity with the rainforest's fruits were key to the children's extraordinary survival in an area where snakes, mosquitoes and other animals abound.

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