plane crash
Search for children in the jungle of Colombia continues
About three weeks ago, the small plane crashed in the rainforest of Colombia. photo
© Colombia’s Armed Forces Press Office/dpa
There are footprints left by the children who survived the plane crash. But where may they be? Satellite images are now also being evaluated.
Around three weeks after the crash of a small plane in the Colombian rainforest, satellite images are now being used to search for the four missing children. This is to identify the possible paths that the four siblings, aged 13, 9 and 4 years and 11 months, could have taken, as the civil aviation authority of the South American country announced on Monday.
The search intensified after new military personnel arrived and more members of the indigenous community joined the search dubbed Operation Hope. The children’s grandmother had asked Colombian President Gustavo Petro over the weekend to continue the search.
The siblings crashed on May 1 in the Cessna 206 propeller plane in the Caquetá department. Her mother, the pilot and an indigenous leader died in the accident. Most recently, soldiers searching for the children had found fresh tracks, an emergency shelter built from leaves and branches, and half-eaten fruit.
The children belong to an indigenous community and, according to media reports, had been with their mother on their way to the capital, Bogotá, where their father had fled after constant threats from armed groups. Their knowledge of the region may have helped them survive in the jungle after the crash.