4 children lost in Colombian jungle found alive after being missing for 40 days

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday that authorities had found alive four children who survived a small plane crash 40 days ago and had been the subject of an intense search in the Amazon jungle that held the country on edge.

The children were alone when searchers found them and are now receiving medical attention, Petro told reporters upon his return to Bogota from Cuba, where he signed a cease-fire agreement with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group.

Petro said the children were an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history.”

The crash happened in the early hours of May 1, when the Cessna single-engine propeller plane with six passengers and a pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure. The small aircraft fell off radar a short time later and a frantic search for survivors began. 

The bodies of three adults, including the pilot and the children’s mother, were found days later, but the children were not in the plane. The discovery of small footprints a few miles from the crash on June 1 rekindled hope of finding the children —aged 13, 9, 4 and 11 months— alive.

More than 100 members of Colombia’s special forces and more than 70 indigenous people from the area joined the search through virgin jungle in the Colombia Amazon. Some soldiers walked nearly 1,000 miles, or almost the distance from Lisbon to Paris, officials said.