Colombia plane crash: The clues that helped find the children
- Published
The children spent some 40 days fending for themselves in the Amazon jungle in Colombia before rescuers found them
Four children have been found alive in Colombia's Amazon jungle more than a month after the plane they were travelling on crashed.
The siblings - aged between one and 13 years old - spent weeks fending for themselves after their mother, and the other adults on the light aircraft died at the crash site.
Rescuers initially feared the worst, but clues including foot prints and partially eaten wild fruit gave them hope that the children might still be alive after they left the crash site looking for help.
The children's mother and two pilots were killed when the light aircraft they were travelling on crashed after apparently suffering engine failure
The dense jungle where the plane crashed is home to jaguars, snakes and a variety of other predators
Clues such as footprints suggested to rescuers that the children were still alive in the jungle after surviving the impact of the crash
The remnants of a makeshift shelter, as well as a pair of scissors and a hair tie, were among the first items to be found during search efforts
Later, a piece of metal which appeared to be part of a mobile phone was found at another location in the jungle
Wild fruit which appeared to have been bitten into also suggested to search teams that the children might still be alive - and fending for themselves
Members of the Huitoto indigenous group hoped that the siblings' knowledge of wild fruits would have given them a better chance of surviving in the inhospitable environment
Pictures from the scene of the rescue showed several adults, some dressed in military fatigues, tending to the children as they sat on tarps in the jungle
They were transported to Colombia's capital Bogota where they are receiving hospital treatment
All photos subject to copyright.
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