Confusion in Colombia over Claim Missing Children Found after Amazon Crash
5/18/2023 10:15:41 AM
BBC published this article:
There is confusion over whether four children have been found alive in Amazon rainforest, more than two weeks after a plane crash in Colombia.
President Gustavo Petro claimed on Wednesday they had been located alive after an "arduous search".
But defence ministry sources have told local media they have no confirmation they have been found.
More than 100 soldiers have been searching with sniffer dogs since the plane vanished on 1 May.
Announcing the missing children had been found, Mr Petro wrote on Twitter: "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."
The bodies of the pilot and two adults were found earlier in the week.
Colombian authorities believe the four missing children were wandering through the rainforest since the plane went down in the southern region.
The Cessna 206 light aircraft was flying between Araracuara in Amazonas province and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it disappeared in the early hours.
Earlier in the week, soldiers found the wreckage of the aircraft, nose buried in the jungle floor, and the bodies of the three dead.
One of the dead adults, Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of the four children. They are thought to be aged between 11 months and 13 years.
The family are from the Huitoto people, an indigenous group in south-eastern Colombia and northern Peru.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Colombian military said search efforts had been stepped up after a "shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches" was found, indicating there were survivors.
In photographs published online, scissors and a hair band had been discovered in the branches on the jungle floor. Earlier a baby bottle and some half-eaten, discarded fruit had also been found by rescuers.
The thick rainforest and extremely isolated location of the crash hampered search efforts, with military planes and helicopters assisting the search teams on the ground.
One helicopter played out a recorded message from their grandmother in the Huitoto language telling the children to stop moving through the rainforest, AFP news agency reports.
Colombian authorities have not yet given the cause of the plane crash but the country's disaster response body said the pilot had reported problems with the engine minutes before the plane disappeared from radar systems.
There is confusion over whether four children have been found alive in Amazon rainforest, more than two weeks after a plane crash in Colombia.
President Gustavo Petro claimed on Wednesday they had been located alive after an "arduous search".
But defence ministry sources have told local media they have no confirmation they have been found.
More than 100 soldiers have been searching with sniffer dogs since the plane vanished on 1 May.
Announcing the missing children had been found, Mr Petro wrote on Twitter: "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."
The bodies of the pilot and two adults were found earlier in the week.
Colombian authorities believe the four missing children were wandering through the rainforest since the plane went down in the southern region.
The Cessna 206 light aircraft was flying between Araracuara in Amazonas province and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it disappeared in the early hours.
Earlier in the week, soldiers found the wreckage of the aircraft, nose buried in the jungle floor, and the bodies of the three dead.
One of the dead adults, Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of the four children. They are thought to be aged between 11 months and 13 years.
The family are from the Huitoto people, an indigenous group in south-eastern Colombia and northern Peru.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Colombian military said search efforts had been stepped up after a "shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches" was found, indicating there were survivors.
In photographs published online, scissors and a hair band had been discovered in the branches on the jungle floor. Earlier a baby bottle and some half-eaten, discarded fruit had also been found by rescuers.
The thick rainforest and extremely isolated location of the crash hampered search efforts, with military planes and helicopters assisting the search teams on the ground.
One helicopter played out a recorded message from their grandmother in the Huitoto language telling the children to stop moving through the rainforest, AFP news agency reports.
Colombian authorities have not yet given the cause of the plane crash but the country's disaster response body said the pilot had reported problems with the engine minutes before the plane disappeared from radar systems.