4 Siblings Lost in Jungle After Plane Crash Found After 40-Day Search - Their Dying Mom Told Them to Leave Her

Four young children were on an airplane ride with their mother when they crashed into the jungle. The mom forced her brood to leave her and get help, and their story of forty days of survival has since shocked the world!

On May 1, 2023, Magdalena Mucutuy and her four children traveled from the Amazonas' Araracuara to San José del Guaviare when tragedy struck.

The family was was trying to rejoin Manuel Ranoque, the children's father, on a Cessna 206 aircraft. Manuel had fled their home after a rebel group started threatening him.

Instead of making it safely to Manuel, their airplane crashed suddenly, plunging them into the jungle. All the adults onboard died, and only Magdalena's children survived the crash. And while it seemed almost impossible for the four children, aged one to 13, to survive alone in the dense jungle for forty days, they did against all odds.

What Happened to Cause the Crash, and How Did the Children Survive in the Jungle?

While flying to their new home, the plane they were in crashed nose-first into the jungle in the south of Colombia. What caused the crash was reported as engine failure, and after the children were saved, Manuel told reporters, outside the hospital that his children were taken to, what his eldest daughter, Lesly, 13, had told him of the situation.

She told him their mother survived for four days before passing on and that she made a passionate plea while dying before her children. Besides urging them to save themselves, Magdalena said:

"'You guys get out of here. You guys are going to see the kind of man your dad is, and he's going to show you the same kind of great love that I have shown you.'"

The children had to leave their dying mother and two dead pilots to fend for themselves in the jungle and look for help. While stranded alone, the siblings probably faced incredibly dangerous situations.

Finding for the wreckage took search teams two weeks, but the children eluded them as they kept wandering the jungle. What helped the siblings to survive for so long was the skills they'd learned from their Huitoto people.

The children's people learned how to fish, hunt, and gather from an early age. As such, Magdalena's children, being members of the indigenous group, ultimately saved their lives with their unique skills.

Their grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, also informed reporters that Lesly and Soleiny, the eldest of his grandchildren, were acquainted with the jungle.

He said they had knowledge of edible fruit and seeds they could eat, which were essential to their survival. Damarys Mucutuy, the children's aunt, shared how she and the family grew up playing a "survival game," recalling:

"When we played, we set up like little camps."

She also noted how Lesly knew which fruits they could eat, as the forest had many poisonous ones. The aunt also revealed that the teenager had the skills to take care of the toddler with them.

Henry Guerrero, an indigenous man who was part of the search party that found the children, shared how they built a small tent from a tarp and a towel to shelter them from the ground. He said they stayed close to the river, and Lesly had a soda bottle she filled with water.

The children's other shelters were made from branches that Lesly held together with her hair ties! The efficient young girl also took a type of cassava flour called fariña from the plane wreck, and it helped sustain them for the first weeks.

Edwin Paki, one of the indigenous leaders, said when the flour ran out, the children started eating seeds. He shared how they ate avichure seeds - a fruit similar to passion fruit - which they found far away from the crash.

Guerrero said when the children were discovered, they revealed they'd eaten fruits from "mil pesos" or the Bacaba palm tree, which tasted similar to avocados. One of the children had the seed from the tree in his mouth when they found them.

Luckily for the siblings, the crash occurred while "the jungle was in harvest," with fruit in full bloom. Alex Rufino, an indigenous expert, noted how the children faced a dark and dense jungle with the region's most giant trees.

He said there were leaves the children could use to purify water, but the risk was that some others were poisonous. Rufina shared how the area they got stranded in had not been explored before and had no towns.

He anticipated that the children also faced rainstorms and had to avoid active armed groups in the forest. However, being raised in an indigenous community meant Lesly had most skills needed to thrive in such an environment. John Moreno, leader of the Guanano group in Vaupés, where the children grew up, said they were raised by their grandmother, stating:

"They used what they learned in the community, relied on their ancestral knowledge in order to survive."

Hectic measures were taken to search for and find the lost children. When search and rescue teams found them, the children only wanted food.

How Were the Children Rescued, and The Role Their Dead Mother Played

Over 100 soldiers, sniffer dogs, and local indigenous people joined in on the search efforts. They kept coming across footprints and bitten fruit, which led them to believe the children had survived the plane crash.

The boy then asked for some bread and sausage.

Part of the rescue mission was to have helicopters flying over broadcasting a message from speakers from the children's grandmother in the home language. They urged the children to stay put so it would be easier to locate them.

Ten thousand leaflets with survival tips written in Spanish and their home language were also dropped in the jungle. The army once came within 66 to 164 feet of where the children were finally found in the 124 sq miles they searched.

After being discovered, the children revealed they'd heard the helicopters and the message. On June 9, 2023, the siblings were found by a team of rescuers when one of them was heard crying.

Guerrero said the moment was of "great happiness," while Valencia noted how weak they were, with minor wounds, bruises, and illnesses they contracted in the forest. The children were airlifted out of the jungle and moved to a military hospital in Bogota.

The siblings were treated for dehydration and malnutrition while being visited by family and members of the search operation. Specialist rescue dogs found the children, and the first words Lesly, who held the baby, said was, "I'm hungry." Upon being discovered, one of the boys had been lying down, and his first statement was the heartbreaking words:

"My mom is dead."

The boy then asked for some bread and sausage, and rescuers said all the children wanted was to eat. The children's rescue was called a "miracle," but Rufino said their "spiritual connection with nature" helped the cause.

Rufina felt Magdalena, who'd become a spirit, had protected her children. He believed she was now finally going to be able to rest.

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