An amazing tale from the thick of invincible Amazon Rain Forest that sprung the ‘Miracle’

Mobilenews24x7 Bureau (Spl)

A touching account of a tale from the Amazonian forest empire where only wild and wild rule. Lucky were the four kids who could survive the deadly disaster with  their indigenous upbringing by the mother. But she is no more.

All under the age of 13, the four kids who survived the insurmountable odds in the forest after the plane crashed, was a miracle.

Read ahead:

When the news about the crash came the nation was left perplexed as many efforts failed to know what really happened. Miracle was the word the nation was praying for.

Lesley (13), Solecni (nine), Tien (four), and Neryman (11 months) were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San José del Guaviare in Colombia on 1 May when their plane crashed in the forest due to an engine failure.

It was Amazon Rain Forest, the unconquerable one, where day breaks even create an illusion of the evenings with nocturnal insects ranting in the solitude. The plane crashed on May 1.

Among the survivors, now we are talking about the four kids, including an 11 month baby, who battled untold odds and remained alive for 40 days.

Left to themselves in that forest the four siblings ate things like seeds, plants and leaves to stay alive which they did for 40 days and that too deep inside the forest’s hostile surroundings before being rescued on June 9.

Everybody on board the plane was killed on the spot except the kids and their mother, who suffered life-threatening injuries and died days later.

After news of the crash came to light, the Colombian government ordered rescue teams to set out in search of the family on board, though hope to find survivors was extremely dim.

 

It is said that the love a mother has for her children is unmatched in this world. It was, perhaps, this force that urged Magdalena Mucutuy to ask her children to abandon her in the hope that their chances of being rescued would improve.

“My daughter has told me that their mother was alive for four days,” Manuel Ranoque, the father of the children, told the media after his children were rescued.

Because of her serious injuries, Mucutuy would have become immobile” said a report.

13-year-old Lesley, the eldest of all, knew what was edible in the forest owing to her indigenous upbringing.  .

It was the tremendous efforts of Lesley that her siblings, Solecni, Tien, and Neryman, stayed alive.

The “children of the bush,” as their grandfather called them, survived by eating seeds, fruits, roots, and plants, Luis Acosta of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (NIOC) told news agency AFP.

They also ate yucca flour, which was aboard the ill-fated aircraft.

“When the plane crashed, they took fariña (flour), and with that, they survived,” the children’s great-uncle Fidencio Valencia said while addressing the press. “After the fariña ran out, they began to eat seeds.”

The eldest of the children, 13-year-old Lesley, knew what was edible in the forest owing to her indigenous upbringing and the knowledge that her mother had passed on to her. Mucutuy was a leader of the Huitoto Indigenous community – which dwell in forests between the Putamayo and Caqueta Rivers in southern Colombia.

It was largely because of Lesley that her siblings, Solecni, Tien, and Neryman, stayed alive.

The “children of the bush,” as their grandfather called them, survived by eating seeds, fruits, roots, and plants, Luis Acosta of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (NIOC) told news agency AFP.

They also ate yucca flour, which was aboard the ill-fated aircraft.

 

When news of the plane crash came to light, it became increasingly obvious that there had to be a painstaking and wide-ranging operation to locate and rescue the survivors. However, Colombia’s forest areas are home to several rebel groups opposed to the government. Hence, no operation which hoped to be successful could be conducted without the support of the rebels.

Laudable truce

A humanitarian appeal did what years of political back-and-forth could not. A cease-fire agreement was inked between President Gustavo Petro and the National Liberation Army rebel group.

Soon the hopes smiled, Petro announced the collaboration of the military and indigenous groups to locate the children – in a rescue effort fittingly dubbed “Operation Hope.”

Several helicopters flew over the forest dropping boxes of food – hoping that the children would be able to find them. Planes flying over the area also fired flares to help rescue teams on the ground at night.

Children were no where!

 

A rescue team found the doomed plane on 16 May in a thick patch of forest and recovered the bodies of the deceased adults. However, the children were nowhere to be found.

The Colombian Army then stepped up efforts and flew 150 soldiers and rescue dogs into the thick of the jungle, covering an area of more than 323 sq km. Hundreds of volunteers joined in the efforts as well, including the children’s father.

What the entire nation was waiting to hear, God helped them with one of the choicest gifts that four kids were alive in which the rescue dogs played a crucial role.

Footprints, a baby’s bottle, nappies, and pieces of fruit that looked like they had been bitten by humans, sustained the hope for their rescue and a new morning broke .

“Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle,” despondent army radios finally blared with fervour on Friday, 9 June. It was the army code for a child found alive. Repeating it four times meant that all four of them had been found alive.

The children were found around 5 km away from the crash site in a small forest clearing, said General Pedro Sánchez, who led the rescue effort.

“The minor children were already very weak. They were only strong enough to breathe or reach a small fruit to feed themselves or drink a drop of water in the jungle,” General Sanchez said, as per The Guardian.

The children also had rags wrapped around their feet to protect them while they walked through muddy surfaces.

Wilson played Santa

It is said that a rescue dog named Wilson played a massive role in the recovery of the siblings. After being rescued, the children told officials that they had spent time with a dog in the forest, a Belgian Shepherd, who later went missing. The dog is believed to be Wilson.

The rescue team followed the tracks left behind by the dog and that is what led them to the children.

However, Wilson is yet to be found.