A Cessna 206 light aircraft with seven people on board recently crashed in the Amazon jungle in Colombia. Three people were confirmed dead; four, missing.
This had not been big news until 9 June, when the authorities declared that they found the four passengers in the search effort.
Surprisingly, 40 days after the plane crashed in the jungle, the four siblings (aged 13, nine, four and one) were exhausted, dehydrated and malnourished, but otherwise “fully conscious and lucid”.
It is astonishing how these four children survived in the wild for more than a month, considering their age and the fact that the older kids had to take care of their younger sibs.
Gen. Pedro Sánchez, who led the search operation, told NBC News that the children’s survival was down to three factors.
“First, the wish to maintain their lives. Second, they are indigenous people, so they have immunity to so many hazards in the jungle,” he said. “Third, they know the jungle.”
The children’s father, who did not board the aircraft with his family, said that, according to his 13-year-old daughter, their mother had been alive for four days after the crash, but she told her kids to leave and find help as she laid dying.
It was revealed that the children ate cassava flour in the beginning but when they eventually ran out of food, 13-year-old Lesly led her younger brother and sisters to find what they could eat in the forest, such as seeds and fruits, because she knows what are poisonous and what are not.
Moreover, Lesly built makeshift shelters from branches held together with her hair ties, and they hid in tree trunks to protect themselves in an area filled with snakes, animals and mosquitoes. In addition to avoiding wild animals, the children also endured intense rainstorms and might have had to evade armed groups said to be active in the jungle.
Unfortunately, Wilson, a Belgian shepherd which helped in the search and rescue of the little siblings, went missing during the mission
Dozens of soldiers remained in the jungle on the search for Wilson.
Military officials and the children’s family believe Wilson encountered the kids independently during the search efforts. In Lesly’s drawing, a dog is playing near a tree and a stream as the sun shines. In her sister Soleiny’s, a dog sits beside a large flower under the sun.
On social media, netizens are pleading for Wilson’s safe return. The Colombian military spokesperson said: “We have a saying, ‘we never leave an element behind,’ even less, the four children; we would not leave Wilson.”
The story of the four kids who survived in the jungle is truly marvelous and inspiring. In Taiwan, due to geopolitical tension, a new Civil Defence Contingency Handbook prepares civilians for air raids, major fires, collapsing structures, power outages, as well as shortage of water and essential goods.
The pamphlet lists nearby air-raid shelters and hospitals and explains what to include in the survival kits should a war break out.
According to the South China Morning Post, the handbook uses “international situations, including the Ukraine war, as references”.
Civilians are advised how to react when directly confronted by enemies, when to report suspicious activities in the neighborhood to authorities, how to identify disinformation, and what to do if a major communication system is knocked out of service.
The pamphlet also provides instructions on safety measures to take if Taiwan comes under attack by missiles or nuclear bombs, and ways to avoid being exposed to radiation from missile explosions or attacks of the island’s nuclear power plants.