2023 Caquetá Cessna Stationair crash

On May 1, 2023, a Cessna 206 light aircraft with seven people on board crashed in the jungle in the Caquetá Department of Colombia. Two of the occupants – the pilot and one adult – were killed on impact, while five passengers, a mother and four children, survived the crash. The mother died several days later, leaving the children to fend for themselves. The children, between 11 months and 13 years old, survived for 40 days in the rainforest before being rescued by the Colombian military and volunteers from local indigenous groups.[1][2]

2023 Caquetá Cessna Stationair crash
The wreckage of the aircraft at the crash site
Accident
DateMay 1, 2023 (2023-05-01)
SummaryCrashed to the ground, under investigation
SiteNear Solano, Caquetá, Colombia
Aircraft
Aircraft typeCessna 206
OperatorAvianline Charters
RegistrationHK-2803
Flight originAraracuara Airport, Colombia
DestinationJorge Enrique González Torres Airport, San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia
Occupants7
Passengers6
Crew1
Fatalities3
Survivors4

History of the flight

The Cessna 206 aircraft, operated by Avianline Charters, departed on the morning of May 1, 2023, from Araracuara Airport, Colombia, on a domestic charter flight to San José del Guaviare, 220 miles (350 km) to the north. At 7:34 am local time, the pilot made a distress call reporting engine failure, and radio contact was lost shortly after. The Colombian Air Force immediately sent out craft to search the area – a Basler BT-67 and Bell Huey helicopter.[1][3]

Passengers and crew

On board the aircraft were the pilot, Hernando Murcia Morales, and six passengers: a mother, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, with her four children aged approximately 13, 9, 4, and 1 years old, and a local indigenous leader, Herman Mendoza Hernández. The pilot and Mendoza died on impact and the mother died four days later. The four siblings survived. The family was part of the Witoto, an indigenous group familiar with the jungle environment and who are taught to hunt, fish and gather from an early age.[2][4][5]

Search and rescue

After the crash, as the children subsequently related to the authorities, their mother urged them to "leave and get help."[6] The four children walked away from the wreckage and started roaming the forest,[5] surviving by eating cassava flour retrieved from the plane's wreckage, fruits from Bacaba palm trees and seeds from avichure trees in their surroundings based on their knowledge of native plants as members of the Witoto indigenous group.[7]

Search and rescue teams from the Colombian military and local indigenous communities started searching the area for wreck and remains. They located the wreckage of the Cessna on May 15, two weeks after the crash. Colombian President Gustavo Petro initially tweeted that the children had been found at that time, but that tweet was retracted less than 24 hours later. They also found items belonging to the children, including a child's drinking bottle, and traces of a makeshift shelter, suggesting that the children could still be alive.[5] A small footprint was found a week later.[8] Loudspeakers with a range of a mile were used to broadcast messages in the Witoto language to the children, advising them to stay in one location so that they could be found by the searchers.[9] The head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare said the fact that "the jungle was in harvest" meant the children could find and eat fruit that was in bloom.[6][2][5]

Rescue

Forty days after the crash, on June 10, 2023, the four children were found and evacuated to the Colombian capital Bogotá for medical treatment.[2] According to the rescuers, the children were malnourished and had many insect bites, but no major health issues.[10] By the time the children were discovered, about 150 troops and rescuers and 200 volunteers from local indigenous groups were searching for them; specialist search and rescue dogs found them. President Petro said it was "an example of total survival which will remain in history".[2][4][11]

Custody battle

Following the rescue of the children, their maternal grandfather, Narciso Mucutuy, requested that the children be relocated closer to their family in Villavicencio.[2] A custody battle ensued between the father of the two youngest children, Manuel Ranoque, and their grandfather, who laid claims of domestic violence against their father.[7] The two elder children have a different father and Ranoque has not been granted access to them following the accident. As of 13 June, a child protection agency was in the process of interviewing relatives to determine the most suitable custody arrangement and said it was investigating the allegations of domestic abuse.[7]

References
  1. "Four children found in Colombian jungle 40 days after plane crash". Al Jazeera. June 10, 2023. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  2. Murphy, Matt; Pardo, Daniel (June 12, 2023). "How children survived 40 days in Colombian jungle". BBC News. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  3. Moss, Loren (May 1, 2023). "Commercial Flight Reported Missing, Last Contact Was Over Remote Colombian Amazon Region". Finance Colombia. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  4. Pozzebon, Stefano (June 10, 2023). "Missing children found after 40 days in Amazon survived like 'children of the jungle,' Colombian president says". CNN. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  5. Durbin, Adam; Buschschlüter, Vanessa (May 18, 2023). "Colombia plane crash: Children reportedly survived 16 days in jungle". BBC News. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  6. Walsh, Aoife (June 12, 2023). "Colombia plane crash: Mum told children to leave her and get help". BBC. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  7. "Colombia plane crash: custody battle breaks out between relatives of children". The Guardian.
  8. Buschschlüter, Vanessa (May 24, 2023). "Colombian plane crash: New clues found in search for lost children". BBC News. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  9. Genevieve Glatsky (June 9, 2023), "4 Missing Children Found Alive After 40 Days in Colombian Jungle", The New York Times
  10. "Mother of rescued Colombia children survived 4 days after jungle crash". Agence France-Presse. June 11, 2023. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Yahoo! News.
  11. Walsh, Aoife (June 10, 2023). "Colombia plane crash: Four children found alive in Amazon after 40 days". BBC News. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
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