Nearly a month after a small plane crashed in the Colombian rainforest, soldiers searching for four missing children have found new clues. A footprint discovered in the mud could belong to the 13-year-old girl, the armed forces said on Tuesday. The soldiers also found fruit that could serve as a source of food for the children.
“The search has not stopped and we continue to hope to locate the children using satellites guiding soldiers and tribes in the area,” the armed forces wrote on Twitter. The siblings, aged 13, nine, four and one, crashed on May 1 in a Cessna 206 propeller plane in the Caquetá department in the south of the country. Her mother, the pilot and an indigenous leader were killed in the accident.
Soldiers keep finding tracks in the jungle
In searching for the children, the soldiers found shoes, diapers, a baby bottle, an emergency shelter made of leaves and branches, and half-eaten fruit. However, the rainforest in the region is very dense, which makes searching for the missing persons much more difficult.
Children have knowledge of the region
The children belong to an indigenous community and, according to media reports, were on their way with their mother to the capital Bogotá, where their father had fled after constant threats from armed groups. Their knowledge of the region may have helped them survive in the jungle after the crash.
New strategy with speakers and headlights
The military is now implementing a new strategy. With the help of visual and acoustic objects placed at strategic points, the siblings must find their way to the searchers, the army announced Monday (local time). Floodlights and loudspeakers are used, among other things, to convey the grandmother’s voice in her native language. Powered by electricity generators, the new devices operate both day and night and can be seen and heard at distances of more than 500 metres.
Dense jungle makes searching difficult
“We believe we have come within 200 to 300 meters of them,” the Colombian newspaper “El Tiempo” was quoted as saying by the Supreme Commander for Special Operations of the Armed Forces, Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez. However, according to “El Tiempo”, the jungle between Caquetá and Guaviare is so dense that “you can’t see more than 20 meters and you can hardly see the sun’s rays through the trees”.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
