Heartbreaking: Mom of miracle Amazon kids survived crash but told them to leave her to save themselves
The mother of four young kids who navigated the Amazon jungle for weeks after a plane crash survived the air accident, too -- but was badly wounded and selflessly urged them to leave her to save themselves.
"My daughter has told me that their mother was alive for four days," the children's father, Manuel Ranoque, said to reporters, according to the Guardian on Sunday.
But the mom, Magdalena Mucutuy, knew her days were numbered and that the kids' chances of survival were better if they left the wreckage to look for food, water and help.
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"Before she died, she said to them, 'Maybe you should go. 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,' " Ranoque said.
The youngsters -- ages 13, 9, 4 and 11 months -- eventually left, sparking what ended up being an epic, 40-day, miraculous journey of survival that included them living off a bag of cassava flour from the wreckage and seeds and fruit they found in the area after the May 1 crash in Colombia that killed their mother and two other adults.
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How did the children survive for 40 days in the Amazon jungle?
Magdalena Mucutuy, a member of the Indigenous Huitoto community, clung to life for four days after a May 1 plane crash in the Amazon jungle before telling her four young children "maybe you should go" so the could try to survive. They did. OPIAC
The mom apparently knew her days were numbered, and encouraged the kids to leave. SEMANA
The children were found Friday by a military rescue dog and members of the military and local indigenous groups.
News about their mom's heartbreaking plea surfaced along with other stunning details about the saga.
Choppers dropped boxes of food as they scoured the region by air and rescuers with dogs searched for the children -- which authorities said actually frightened the young survivors and prompted them to hide.
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"They were afraid out there, with the dogs barking," said their great-uncle, Fidenxio Valencia. "They hid among the trees. ... They ran."
Rescue crews also blared recordings through loudspeakers of the children's grandmother urging them to stay in one place so people could find and help them.
"They heard the message, and they were afraid. They hid in the bush so as not to be found," said Alicia Mendez, a journalist with El Tiempo, to the Guardian.
"Every time [the search team] was close, they hid," Mendez said. "We don't know what was going through their little heads."
Valencia said the children four are "shattered but in good hands, and it's great they're alive.
About 150 Colombian soldiers searched the jungle for weeks before finding the four missing children. AP
"We were in the darkness, but now dawn has broken, and I have seen the light," he told the outlet.
He said Lesly, the oldest of the children, is credited with leading her siblings to safety and keeping them alive by using her knowledge of Amazon fauna, which includes many poisonous varieties of fruit.
Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who took charge of the rescue effort, said the four emaciated children were found in a clearing about 3 miles from the site of the Cessna crash nearly six weeks later, the outlet said.
"The minor children were already very weak," Sanchez said. "They were only strong enough to breathe or reach a small fruit to feed themselves or drink a drop of water in the jungle."
Officials said they were able to sustain themselves because the jungle was in harvest and lush with fruit.
On Saturday, Colombian pop icon Shakira joined the chorus of those celebrating the children's survival.
"The suffering of Lesly, Soleimy, Tien and Cristin and the miracle of their lives have shaken us all and have given us the greatest example of unity and resilience," she wrote on Twitter.
The children and their mother, who are members of the Huitoto Indigenous community, were flying from the village of Ararcuara to San Jose del Guaviare when the small plane suffered engine failure and plunged into the dark jungle.
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Rescuers discovered the wreckage and adults' bodies May 16 -- but there was no sign of the youngsters.
Colombia's military sent 150 soldiers into the jungle to find the missing kids and soon found traces that they may have survived, including footprints, a baby bottle and baby "nappies," in the dense foliage.
On Friday, a trained rescue dog named Wilson sniffed out the exhausted children.
"The jungle saved them," Colombian President Gustavo Petro has told reporters. "They are children of the jungle and now they are also children of Colombia."