How could 4 children have survived a plane crash in the Amazon?

A month after four children disappeared in the Colombian Amazon, a preliminary report by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority offers clues as to how they may have survived the devastating plane crash that killed all the adults on board.

The extraordinary story of the missing children has attracted intense interest across Colombia and internationally, as a military-led search operation continues in the forest.

The ill-fated May 1st flight was carrying pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, Yarupari indigenous leader Herman Mendoza Hernández, indigenous Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia and their four children, the oldest aged 13 and the youngest just 11 months old.

Shortly after taking off in the morning from the remote community of Araracuara, the pilot communicated to air traffic control that he would look for an emergency landing site, according to the report.

“… Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, I have the engine on low, I’m going to look for a field,” he said.

Later, the pilot reported that the engine had regained power and continued on his way – only to have problems again less than an hour later: “…Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, 2803, Engine failed again… I’m going to look for a river … I have a river on the right…”

This time the problem did not improve. Air traffic control later tracked the plane veering to the right, the report said. So it went off the radar.

Despite air and water searches that immediately followed the incident, according to the report, the plane would not be found until more than two weeks later — time that could still be significant in the fate of the plane’s passengers, as investigators continue to investigate. the accident and its consequences.

A crucial seating map

Five days after the plane disappeared, the Colombian military deployed special forces units to search the ground on May 6. Ten days later, on the night of May 16, they finally sighted the wreckage.

The three adults were found dead at the scene. But all four children were missing – leading rescuers to assume they had survived, evacuated the plane and were walking through the jungle on their own, spurring a new search effort.

Investigators’ photos of the crash scene show the raised tail of a small plane painted in a still crisp blue and white, with its nose and nose smashed into the jungle terrain. The report says the plane likely first hit the trees in the dense forest, taking out the engine and propeller, followed by a vertical drop to the forest floor.

“The detailed inspection of the wreckage indicated that, during the landing, there was a first impact against the trees; this blow caused the separation of the engine with its cover and propeller from the structure of the aircraft”, says the report. “Due to the strong deceleration and loss of control on the first impact, the aircraft fell vertically and collided with the ground.”

While noting that forensic examinations are ongoing, the report suggests that the adults seated at the front of the plane’s cabin suffered fatal injuries from the crash. “The diagram of injuries caused by the accident recorded fatal injuries to the occupants located in positions 1 (Pilot), 2 (adult male occupant) and 3 (adult female occupant).

But the back seats, where the older children were, were less affected by the impact, according to the report, offering a possible explanation for their survival and signs of life – including a bottle, used diaper and footprints – later found in the jungle by teams of search and rescue.

Two of the three seats occupied by children remained in place and in an upright position despite the crash, according to the report, while an infant seat became detached from the plane’s structure.

The child may have been held in the mother’s arms, according to the report.

The children “were not located in the area of ​​the accident, and there was no indication that they had been injured, at least not seriously. Therefore, an intense search began to find them, ”he says.

So far, a total of 119 Colombian special forces soldiers and 73 indigenous scouts have been deployed to search the area, according to the report.

Relatives have previously said the children knew the jungle well – but worried whether they would understand that the outside world hadn’t given up on them.

“Maybe they are hiding,” said Fidencio Valencia, the children’s grandfather, speaking to Colombia’s Caracol TV earlier this month. “Maybe they don’t realize they’re looking for them; they are children.”