▪︎Military sources keep mum, yet to confirm the news
Confusion has taken centre stage over whether four children from an Indigenous community in Colombia had been found alive following a plane crash with sources distancing the country’s Military from the claims.
The latest development comes on the heels of information from military sources that contradict the averment from President Gustavo Petro that they (children) had been located alive in the jungle weeks after the crash
President Petro had spoken of “joy for the country” following the discovery of the four children, who were missing for more than two weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed in the dense jungle of Colombia’s Caqueta province,
However, local media reported on Thursday that Defence sources have not been forthcoming with confirmation that the children had been found.
Available information indicated that some officials had briefed the president that three adults, including the pilot, died as a result of the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane, but that the children, aged 13, nine, and four, as well as an 11-month-old baby, survived the impact.
Also, preliminary information from the Civil Aviation Authority, which coordinated the rescue efforts, suggests the children escaped the plane and set off into the rainforest to find help.
Rescuers, supported by search dogs, had previously found discarded fruit the children ate to survive, as well as improvised shelters made with jungle vegetation.
Similarly, reports had said airplanes and helicopters from both Colombia’s Army and Air Force have been participating in the rescue operations.
The plane – a Cessna 206 – was carrying seven people between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it issued a Mayday alert due to engine failure in the early hours of 1 May.
“After arduous searching by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country,” Petro said on Wednesday in a message via Twitter. – The Guardian with Reuters’ report
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