Intensive searches are underway in Colombia to find four children who disappeared in the Amazon jungle after the small plane they were on with two other passengers and the pilot crashed in early May. All three were found dead, authorities announced on Tuesday.
• Also read: ON VIDEO | The Colombian Navy seizes the largest drug submarine in its history
• Also read: US warns migrants its border is ‘not wide open’
Between Monday and Tuesday, “three adults were found dead,” German Camargo, head of civil protection in the Meta department, where relief operations are being coordinated, told AFP. He specified that the minors wanted were three children aged 13, 9 and 4 and an 11-month-old baby.
The aircraft, a Cessna 206, disappeared from radar on May 1 while flying at full speed over the jungle near San José del Guaviare in the southern Caqueta department of the country.
An aerial search was immediately launched to locate the aircraft and its occupants. But it wasn’t until Monday that help was able to reach the crash site.
According to the airline Avianline Charter, which operated the flight, the pilot’s body was found on the plane on Monday, and the army posted photos of it on Twitter. They show the plane vertical in the middle of the jungle, nose crushed to the ground.
Soldiers investigating with locals from communities near the crash site, and assisted by sniffer dogs, discovered chewed fruit and personal items, including a bottle, in the area of the crash.
Rescue workers “found bitten fruit from the jungle, which is why we assume there is life there,” said German Camargo.
However, the jungle in this region, which is particularly difficult to access, is very dense. In particular, the rescue workers had to travel a nine-hour trip down the river to be able to reach the scene of the accident.
“The Armed Forces and all units involved in the search remain confident and are concentrating all efforts to find the six other occupants of the aircraft alive,” Civil Aviation said in its press release.
The causes of the accident have not yet been clarified. According to Civil Protection, the pilot had reported problems with the plane’s engine before it disappeared from radar.