Weeks after plane crash in Amazon, clues suggest 4 missing kids still alive

Photo from Colombian Air Force, El Tiempo

After a Cessna 206 crashed on May 1 near the Guaviare province in Colombia, the country waited while reports went back and forth on whether the four children traveling in the plane with their mother were alive. President Gustavo Petro tweeted that the children were found alive by Colombian armed forces, but deleted the tweet and added that the reports are unconfirmed and the search is ongoing, with the location of the children still a mystery.

Magdalena Mucutuy and her four children, aged 11 months, four, nine and 13 were traveling with Herman Mendoza and pilot Hernando Murcia when the plane crashed. The Civil Aviation Authority of Colombia (Aerocivil) said that the pilot reported engine failure and declared an emergency. The last electronic contact was south of San José del Guaviare, on the Apaporis River, between the departments of Guaviare and Caquetá. After contact was lost the search efforts began. The teams are searching in the area where the plane lost contact with nearly 60 units of the National Army’s special forces, relatives of the children and other members of their indigenous group.

The bodies of all three adults have been found, but the children are believed to be alive, wandering the jungle. CBS News reports that items like scissors, shoes, hair ties, a baby’s bottle, half-eaten fruit and a makeshift shelter made out of sticks and branches, leading search teams to believe there were survivors. El Tiempo reports that the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) said the teams have not made visual contact with the minors. The ICBF said that based on information from the community, the children have been found alive and in good health but without visual contact, this cannot be confirmed.

The director of the ICBF Astrid Caceres told CNN that her team received second-hand information that the children had been rescued and identified. Caceres is confident the children have been found alive but is waiting for substantial proof.

The jungle is a difficult place to navigate, with tall trees and heavy rainfall making the search difficult. Search teams involving military and indigenous people have been searching the dense jungle for weeks to find the children. CBS reports that three helicopters are being used in the search, each playing a recorded message from the children’s grandmother in their native Witoto language telling them to stop moving throughout the jungle. Soldiers are following the trail of dropped items and have even found fresh footprints to follow.

El Tiempo reports that Mucutuy was an indigenous Muinane, belonging to the Puerto Sábalo community, a Witoto ethnic group. Her husband was Manuel Ranoque, a relative of the indigenous governor in the region who left due to constant threats illegal groups were making to his family. Ranoque had made been working to give his wife and family money to meet him in Bogotá, Colombia and they were on the plane after obtaining the full money to travel. Relatives and community members have hope that the children will be found alive.

The children have been missing since the May 1 crash, but the nation waits for confirmation that they survived. Hopes are that Lesly (13), Soleiny (nine), Tien Noriel Ranoque (four) and Cristin Nerimen Ranoque (11 months) will be found alive and well and reunited with their surviving family.

 “The Military Forces and the indigenous communities will continue in their tireless search to give the country the news it is waiting for,” President Gustavo Petro said in a response to deleting his tweet about finding the children. “At this time there is no other priority than moving forward with the search until you find them. Children’s lives are the most important thing.”