MIRACLE IN THE JUNGLE

First they survived a plane crash, then the four siblings spent 40 days lost deep in a dangerous part of the Amazon

- KESHIA AFRICA

AS FAR as stories of survival go, this one has to be up there with the most incredible of them all: four young children who not only survived a catastrophic plane crash, but fended for themselves for 40 days in a jungle teeming with armed guerrillas and some of the deadliest predators on Earth.

If it were a movie, it would be farfetched. But real life can sometimes be more incredulous than fiction – and this tale is one of such grit and courage it has captured the world’s imagination.

The children – siblings Lesly Jacobo Bonbaire (13), Solecni Ranoque Mucutuy (9), Tien Noriel Ranoque Mucutuy (4) and Cristin Neryman Ranoque Mucutuy (1) – were emaciated, exhausted and covered in insect bites when they were eventually found.

But they were alive – and for the hundreds of soldiers and volunteers who searched the inhospitable rainforest for weeks, it was nothing short of miraculous.

The wreckage of the plane was found on 16 May, more than two weeks after it crashed on 1 May, reportedly because of engine failure.

The pilot, Hernando Murcia Morales, and Herman Mendoza Hernandez, leader of the Huitoto people in the region, were killed immediately. The children’s mother, Magdalena Mucutui Valencia, may have survived for four days, but it’s unclear whether that is the case or if she was also killed on impact.

For weeks helicopters circled the jungle, dropping boxes of food and pamphlets with survival tips and firing flares into the sky at night to illuminate the forest for search parties.

There were signs the children were alive – footprints in the mud, bits of half-eaten fruit, a baby’s bottle.