[UPDATE] In Colombia, 4 children including an 11-month-old baby NOT found 17 days after plane crash in Amazon jungle

The four children whose plane crashed in the Amazon jungle of Colombia 17 days ago were not yet found, despite what Colombian President Petro affirmed a few hours ago.

“A joy for the country,” rejoiced Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday, announcing the safe and sound discovery of four children, including an eleven-month-old baby, who survived alone for more than 15 days in the Amazon jungle after the crash in early May of the small plane in which they were travelling with their mother, who was found dead along with the two other adults on board.

But on Thursday, the president backed away from the data. “Could not be confirmed“ According to Petro, the children have not been found at all.

“I have decided to remove it because the information from the ICBF could not be confirmed. I’m sorry for what happened,” he writes on Twitter and continues: “The military forces and the indigenous people will continue in their tireless quest to bring the country the news it is waiting for. At the moment there is no priority other than to continue the search until you find them. The children’s lives are the most important,” he writes.

More than a hundred soldiers helped by sniffer dogs were on the “track” of the children, who belong to the Uitoto tribe, an indigenous people. Rescue workers believe the missing children, aged thirteen, nine, four years and eleven months, wandered in the virgin forest between the department of Caqueta and that of Guaviare, in the south of Colombia.

The plane involved was a Cessna U206G Stationair registered HK-2803 with seven occupants, which was reported missing on a domestic flight in Colombia from Araracuara Airport (ACR) to Jorge Enrique González Torres Airport (SJE) on May 1, 2023. On May 15, after 370 hours of searching, the wreckage of the aircraft was found in a forest. The bodies of three occupants were found at the scene in the days after the discovery.