plane crash
Rescued jungle children safely transferred to home
Colombian forces take care of the siblings who went missing after a fatal plane crash in June. photo
© –/Colombia’s Armed Forces Press Office/dpa
The children survived alone in the jungle for weeks – but they are in good health. What’s next for her now?
The four Colombian children who are after a rescued alive after 40 days in the rainforest in June’s plane crash have been discharged from the hospital in the capital, Bogotá.
After more than a month under medical supervision, the siblings were initially moved to a home, a spokesman for the Colombian Institute for the Welfare of Families (ICBF) told the German Press Agency on Friday. They are in good health.
The maternal grandparents have applied for custody. The mother of the children aged 13, 9, 5 and one died in the plane crash. The father, who had fled the region due to constant threats from the FARC splinter group, did not live with the children.
Search parties found the children in the rainforest in early June. They crashed in the wilderness on May 1st with a propeller plane – and then had to fend for themselves. On May 16, more than two weeks after the accident, members of the Colombian army’s special forces reached the wreckage of the plane and found the bodies of the pilot, the mother and an indigenous leader.
The siblings – a boy and three girls – belong to an indigenous community. Their knowledge of the region may have helped them survive in the jungle.