New evidence of hope
that four children
may be alive after a small plane
crash 17 days ago
in a remote part of the
Amazon rainforest.
Here's why there is reason to hope.
Discoveries of scrunchies,
plastic wrappings, even a baby bottle.
CNN's
Stephanie Postman is in Colombia,
where this massive search
is currently underway.
To discover a glimmer of hope.
Colombia's president
tweeting that four children on board
a single engine aircraft
that crashed in the jungle on May 1st
had been found alive and well.
Rescuers using scatter debris
to trace them.
But on Thursday,
the president's tweet was deleted,
saying the information
quote, could not be confirmed.
Government officials blaming
poor communication.
And the head of the country's
children welfare authority later
saying she was, quote,
very confident about their rescue.
She said, quote,
We're still missing
that very, very last link
that confirms all our hopes
until we have the food of the kids,
we won't be stopping.
We not underestimating
the information we received,
but we want to confirm directly ourselves
The Colombian
armed forces have been using dogs
to search for the children.
The plane had taken off
from the remote area of Ararat, Kwara
bound for San Jose.
We walk away.
Rescuers from the military
and local indigenous
communities are in giving them
hope to bring home the little ones
as they follow a trail of small objects
such as hair scrunchies and baby bottles,
or even bringing in a recording
of the grandmother
to at least one of the children
to help in the search
But efforts are difficult
given the rainfall in the dense
part of the jungle.
Once the rivers start to swell
and things like that,
and you have areas that are rapids
that makes it more difficult to navigate.
Obviously, as I said,
rivers are kind of the highway,
so they're going to be
using those waterways
to get to and from places,
obviously to extract
the survivors out
and things of that nature.
The Colombian aviation authorities say
they found another three bodies
inside this small aircraft,
but those have yet to be recovered.
And, Jake,
CNN has just
learned minutes ago
that those bodies,
the three bodies,
have indeed been recovered
and have just arrived in the hands
of Colombian authorities.
They were the bodies of the three adults
on board of that flight,
two indigenous passengers and the pilots.
Still no words
on the whereabouts
and the status of those
four little children,
which makes these frantic search
even more frantic Jake.
Stefan Campos, thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Joining us now to discuss
and get
some insight is survival expert
and author Dave Canterbury.
Dave, thank you so much for sharing
part of your afternoon with us.
First,
I just want to put the challenge
that these kids are facing
and the context you're talking about,
some of the densest rainforest on Earth.
What are they facing
Well, the
one thing I think
you have to put into context
is that these are indigenous people.
They're they're tribal people,
children of tribal people.
So they probably have some knowledge
of the local flora,
fauna and things like that
and what they can use off the landscape.
However, surviving the plane crash alone.
That's phenomenal in itself.
And then
the fact that they have the four year old
or the 11 month old child
becomes the anomaly
because that child
probably needs much more care
than the older children do.
And the older children
are probably leading this expedition out.
Would they be better off
staying in place to be found?
I would say yes, obviously they would.
However, they're
probably thinking
that if they keep moving toward water,
water becomes the highway in a jungle.
So the closer they can get the water,
the closer they are to being found.
That's a really important point.
It's interesting
you described
the baby as being the anomaly
maybe for survivalist.
It's the anomaly,
but the whole situation
seems like something out of fiction.
Right.
And apparently
the weather isn't helping either.
There's a lot of rain
falling in that area.
How does that complicate this process?
Once the
river start
to swell and things like that
and you have areas that are rapids
that makes it more difficult to navigate.
Obviously, as I said,
the rivers are kind of the highway.
So they're going to be using
those waterways
to get to and from places, obviously,
to extract the survivors out
and things of that nature.
And that is more difficult
during torrential rains
when those rivers are swollen
and they've been out there
for more than two weeks now.
If you're, you know,
a child,
you're in a plane crash,
something horrible like that happens.
You see loved ones
that might be injured or killed.
What's your first step?
I mean, what do you do in that situation
if you're in the middle of the Amazon
Well, being a child, it's
hard to
say what their thought process
would be from a survival standpoint.
Obviously, to
understand what injuries they may have
from the plane crash itself
and attend to those injuries first.
And then once that's taken care of,
it becomes a simple system
of sheltering ourselves
from any extra elements,
making sure that we have water.
And in torrential rains,
they're going to have plenty of water
and then sustainable food,
especially for the younger ones
who require food more often.
And then are they going to navigate
toward a waterway, like I said,
or try to stay put?
I tend to believe that
because these tribal children
are probably from a river
oriented tribe to begin with,
they probably understand
that moving toward water
is their best bet for rescue,
going from one body of water
to a larger body of water
to a larger body of water.
They here at the largest river,
they can find to find something
in the form of civilization
or someone traveling to and from.
That's really important context.
These are indigenous children.
They're part of a local tribe.
So they probably have some awareness
of the rainforest and the fauna
and what to eat and what not.
But it's still kind of scary
being out there
with so many things, being poisonous
and venomous. Right.
Oh, there's no question.
I mean, you've got large
predators
out there
like Jaguar,
you've got poisonous
snakes, you've got venomous spiders.
All those types of things are out there,
not to mention
just the constant
pestering of insects in general
and then the constant rain, which is
what would be a large morale factor
for someone like us,
but someone who lives in that day
in and day out.
Probably not as much of a downfall
and morale
as it would be for someone like us.
But I think that just the fact
that these children,
as young as they are,
realizing a 13 year
old child
growing up in that environment
probably is going to be very similar
to someone
growing up around
the eastern woodlands
of the United States are going to know
what to stay away from,
what they can eat, what they can eat,
things like that.
However, alone
without any one around
definitely is going to be a challenge.
And especially with that
11 month old baby. Yikes.
That is tough,
but it sounds like they're at least alive
and hopefully they'll be found soon.
Dave Canterbury,
thank you so much
for sharing your perspective with us.
We'd love to chat
more once they are found.
Absolutely, sir.
Thank you.