The first words of the children who survived for nearly six weeks in the Amazon rainforest after their plane crashed have been revealed by rescuers.
Lesly Jacombaire Mucutuy, 13, Soleiny Jacombaire Mucutuy, nine, Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, five, and one-year-old Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy were last night being monitored and treated at a military hospital in Colombia.
A Colombian air force video showed a helicopter using lines to pull the youngsters up because it was not possible to land in the dense rainforest. Cristin, in a thermal blanket, was seen being offered water.
Soldiers said the eldest child, Lesly, ran towards them holding her brother Cristin when she saw them.
Nicolas Ordonez Gomes, one of the rescuers, said he was told “I’m hungry” and “my mum is dead”.
The four children, all members of the indigenous Huitoto people, had been lost in the jungle since May 1 after the light plane they were travelling in crashed.
Rescuers told them they were friends sent by their family and father.
The children’s uncle Fidencio Valencia said they managed to stay safe despite the area teeming with deadly snakes, poisonous frogs, black caiman, wild cats, wandering spiders and other killers.
He said Lesly had learned jungle craft from Huitoto elders. Huitoto people learn hunting, fishing and gathering from an early age.
Valencia revealed it was her forethought to take a bag of flour from the plane wreckage when they left that kept them alive for days.
“When the plane crashed, they took out [of the wreckage] a [bag of flour], and with that, they survived,” Valencia said outside the Bogota military hospital where their grandfather Narcisco also visited them.
The flour was from cassava, a type of yucca plant commonly eaten in the region. “After the [flour] ran out, they began to eat seeds from plants they were familiar with,” Valencia said. To hide from predators, he added, “they hid in tree trunks”.
Baby Cristin, the youngest child, turned one while they were missing.
The Cessna single-engine propeller plane was also carrying their mother and two other adults when the pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure. It disappeared off the radar a short time later.
Their mum Magdalena survived for four days before telling the children to leave the crash site.
They are expected to remain at the hospital for several weeks as they recover.
Of their current condition, Valencia said: “They at least are already eating, a little, but they are eating.”
He said families are talking to the children but giving them space and time to recover from the shock.
“They have been drawing,” he said. “They need to let off steam.”
Dairo Juvenal Mucutuy, another uncle, said one of the children told him: “Uncle, I want shoes, I want to walk, but my feet hurt.”
He added: “The only thing that I told the kid [was], ‘When you recover, we will play soccer’”.
The children were found three miles from the crash site in a small forest clearing – 40 days after the crash because of a mechanical error.
About 150 soldiers teamed up with volunteers from indigenous tribes, who historically have an adversarial relationship with the military.
