4 kids rescued in Amazon plane crash survived on cassava flour, fruit

The four kids who survived 40 days after a plane crash in the Amazon jungle in Colombia ate cassava flour and fruit to stay alive, their family said.

Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 13, used her knowledge of the Amazon to lead the group with help from her brothers, 9-year-old Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy and 4-year-old Tien Ranoque Mucutuy. They even cared for 11-month-old Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy along the way.

Defense minister Iván Velásquez Gómez praised Lesly’s “leadership and courage,” while her grandmother told news agencies that the eldest child’s “warrior” spirit was well-known.

On May 1, a single-engine Cessna plane carrying the four children, their mother, an Indigenous leader and the pilot crashed deep in the Amazon jungle. While all three adults were found dead at the site of the crash, the children appeared to survive.

Authorities scoured the Amazon for weeks, picking up tiny clues along the way that the children may still be alive, including a makeshift shelter, a soiled diaper and a bottle.

After a false alarm on May 18, Indigenous and military rescuers located the children on Friday.

“A joy for the whole country!” tweeted Colombian President Gustavo Pedro.

The children, all members of the Huitoto Indigenous group, were familiar with the Amazon, and their knowledge of the fruits, animals and terrain helped them survive, relatives said. They needed some luck, too. The plane they were riding in was carrying cassava flour known as fariña.

“When the plane crashed, they took out [of the wreckage] a fariña, and with that, they survived,” their uncle, Fidencio Valencia, told reporters. “After the fariña ran out, they began to eat seeds.”

The children were transported to a military hospital in the capital of Bogota, where they are expected to recover for at least two weeks.

With News Wire Services