Four Indigenous children survived an Amazon plane crash that killed three adults and then braved the jungle for 40 days before being found alive by Colombian soldiers, bringing a happy ending to a search-and-rescue saga that captivated a nation and forced the usually opposing military and Indigenous people to work together.
Cassava flour and some familiarity with the rainforest’s fruits were key to the children’s extraordinary survival in an area where snakes, mosquitoes and other animals abound. The members of the Huitoto people, aged 13, 9 and 4 years and 11 months, are expected to remain for a minimum of two weeks at a hospital receiving treatment after their rescue Friday last week.
Family members, President Gustavo Petro as well as government and military officials met the children Saturday last week at the hospital in Bogota, the capital. Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez told reporters the children were being rehydrated and cannot eat food yet.
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
“But in general, the condition of the children is acceptable,” Velasquez said. They were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare when the plane crashed in the early hours of May 1.
The Cessna single-engine propeller plane was carrying three adults and the four children when the pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure. The small aircraft fell off the radar a short time later and a search for survivors began.
“When the plane crashed, they took out (of the wreckage) a farina, and with that, they survived,” the children’s uncle, Fidencio Valencia told reporters outside the hospital. Farina is a cassava flour that people eat in the Amazon region. “After the farina ran out, they began to eat seeds,” Valencia said.
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
Timing was in the children’s favor. Astrid Caceres, head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, said the youngsters were also able to eat fruit because “the jungle was in harvest.”
Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who was in charge of the rescue efforts, said that the children were found 5 kilometers away from the crash site in a small forest clearing. He said rescue teams had passed within 20 to 50 meters of where the children were found on a couple of occasions but had missed them.
Petro called the children an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history.”
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
Two weeks after the crash, on May 16, a search team found the plane in a thick patch of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the small children were nowhere to be found.
Sensing that they could be alive, Colombia’s army stepped up the hunt and flew 150 soldiers with dogs into the area, where mist and thick foliage greatly limited visibility. Dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes also joined the search.
Soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, hoping that it would help sustain the children. Planes flying over the area fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used speakers that blasted a message recorded by the siblings’ grandmother telling them to stay in one place.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
Officials praised the courage of eldest of the children, a girl, who they said had some knowledge of how to survive in the rainforest and led the children through the ordeal.
As the search progressed, soldiers found small clues that led them to believe the children were still alive, including a pair of footprints, a baby bottle, diapers and pieces of fruit that looked like they had been bitten by humans.
“The jungle saved them,” Petro said. “They are children of the jungle, and now they are also children of Colombia.”
(AP)
四名原住民兒童在造成三名成年人喪生的亞馬遜飛機失事中倖存下來，勇敢在叢林中生存了40天，才被哥倫比亞軍方發現，為這場大搜救帶來圓滿的結局，這場舉國關注的搜救行動，促使一向敵對的軍方與原住民攜手合作。
木薯粉以及對熱帶雨林水果的一些知識，是這些孩童得以在蛇、蚊子和其他動物橫行之處奇蹟生還的關鍵。這些維托托族孩童，年齡分別為13歲、9歲、4歲，及11個月大，上週五獲救後，預計將在醫院接受至少兩週的治療。
家人、總統古斯塔沃‧裴卓以及政府與軍方官員上週六在哥倫比亞首都波哥大的醫院探望了這些孩童。國防部長伊萬‧貝拉斯克斯對記者表示，孩子們正在補充身體水分，但還不能吃東西。
「不過大致說來，孩子們的狀況還算好」，貝拉斯克斯說。他們是在5月1日凌晨，與母親搭機由亞馬遜河流域的阿拉拉夸拉村前往瓜維亞雷河畔的聖荷西鎮途中失事。
這架賽斯納單引擎螺旋槳飛機當時載有三名成人與四名兒童，飛行員因引擎故障宣布進入緊急狀態後不久，這架小型飛機便從雷達上消失了，搜救倖存者的行動於是展開。
「飛機墜毀後，他們從（飛機殘骸）裡面取出了一份澱粉，讓他們得以存活」，孩童的叔叔菲登西奧‧瓦倫西亞在醫院外對記者表示。這種澱粉是亞馬遜地區人們所食用的一種木薯粉。「澱粉吃完後，他們就開始吃種子」，瓦倫西亞說。
時機對孩子們有利。哥倫比亞家庭福利研究所負責人阿斯特麗‧卡塞雷斯表示，由於「叢林正處於結果實的時節」，讓這些孩童也有野果可吃。
負責救援工作的佩德羅‧桑切斯將軍表示，這些孩童是在距離墜機現場5公里處森林的一片小空地上被發現的。他說，救援隊曾經過離這裡20至50公尺的地方數次，但都沒找到他們。
裴卓總統稱這些孩子是「求生的榜樣」，並預測他們的傳奇故事「將載入史冊」。
5月16日，亦即墜機兩週後，一支搜救隊在茂密的熱帶雨林中找到了這架飛機，並在機上尋獲三位大人的屍體，卻不見小孩蹤影。
感覺到他們可能還活著，哥國軍方加強了尋人行動，並派出150名士兵帶狗進入該地區，那裡的霧氣和濃密的樹葉大大限制了能見度。來自原住民部落的數十名志願者也加入了搜索。
直升機上的士兵將成箱的食物空投到叢林中，希望能幫助這些孩童生存。飛越該地區的飛機在夜間發射照明彈幫助地面的搜救人員，救援人員用喇叭播放這些手足的祖母所錄下的一段話，要他們待在同一個地方。
官員們稱讚年紀最大的孩子的勇氣，她是位女孩，讚她對在熱帶雨林中如何求生有一定的了解，並帶領其他孩童度過了難關。
隨著搜索進行，士兵發現了一些小線索，讓他們相信孩子們還活著，包括一對腳印、一個嬰兒奶瓶、尿布，以及看起來像是被人咬過的水果片。
「叢林拯救了他們」，裴卓總統說。「他們是叢林之子，現在他們也是哥倫比亞的孩子」。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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