WHEN a plane crashed in the Amazon jungle carrying four young children, there was little hope of finding them alive.
It took rescuers two weeks to trace the wreckage of the Cessna that went down carrying Lesly Mucutuy, 13, and her siblings Soleiny, nine, four-year-old Tien and 11-month-old Cristin.
It took rescuers two weeks to trace the wreckage of the Cessna after it crashed in the Amazongetty
APRescuers pose for snap with the missing youngsters as their 40-day ordeal finally ended[/caption]
AFPRescue heroes check over one of the stricken children[/caption]
When they finally reached the stricken aircraft, a 12-hour boat ride from civilisation, they discovered the two pilots and the children’s mother Magdalena dead — but, astonishingly, there was no sign of the kids.
What followed was a remarkable tale of survival as Lesly kept her siblings alive for 40 days before they were found.
Now, the children have told how they lived on berries knocked to the ground by monkeys, fought off wild animals with sticks and torchlight and hand-built shelters to huddle in.
Incredibly, Lesly spent the first 19 days crawling along the jungle floor with her baby sister in her arms because she was unable to walk after her leg was crushed in the crash.
She says: “We stayed by the plane for a few days, but no one came to rescue us. I packed two bags with supplies. I was crying from the pain. I was dragging my leg, crawling, searching for a way out the jungle.”
‘Mum suffered a lot’
Their ordeal began on May 1, 2023, when they boarded a small plane with Magdalena in the southern Amazon town of Araracuara, Colombia.
They were flying 220 miles to San Jose del Guaviare, en route to Bogota, where they would join her husband Manuel Ranoque — who later claimed he had been forced to flee there amid threats from rebels.
But just 30 minutes into the journey, the plan came down.
Lesly described how it crashed into the dense jungle, teeming with insects, venomous snakes such as the bone-crushing anaconda and predators including jaguars and crocodiles.
And she told a new National Geographic documentary, Lost In The Jungle, how mum Magdalena had sprung the move on the children, recalling: “I didn’t want to go. I was living with my grandma Fatima, I was going to school and I was happy.
“It was my first time on a plane. As we took off, it began making a lot of noise. I was so scared . . . then later it started to fall. The pilot called the control tower asking for help. That’s all I remember.”
When Lesly came round, blood was gushing from her head and her leg was trapped beneath a seat.
“There was so much blood on my face and on my clothes,” she says. “I saw Tien, Soleiny was crying and I saw my mum.
We stayed by the plane for a few days, but no one came to rescue us
Lesly Mucutuy
“My leg hurt because the seat had collapsed and my shoe was stuck.
“I needed to get to Cristin as she was trapped under my mum’s body and she couldn’t breath. I stepped my foot out of my shoe and left it there. I struggled, but I got my siblings out.
“I needed to stop the blood gushing from my head and I found the first aid kit. Cristin was crying and crying.
“She was hungry and thirsty. I searched the bags and found a hammock, a mosquito net and Cristin’s bottle. I arranged some leaves and we all laid down.
A new National Geographic documentary recreates the moment the unsuspecting family prepared to board their doomed flightNational Geographic
The family were flying in a Cessna aircraftGetty
“Cristin was inconsolable. I couldn’t sleep and my leg hurt too much.”
Lesly said her mother had been alive when the plane hit the ground, but died of her injuries hours later.
After three days waiting in vain for help, Lesly set off on her incredible trek in a bid to escape the Amazon and lead her siblings to safety.
However, she was not without knowledge.
The children are part of the indigenous Huitoto tribe, and Magdalena had taught Lesly which wild berries were safe to eat.
Sister Soleiny recalls: “The monkeys teased us as they leapt from tree to tree. They made the milpesos fruit fall and we caught them.”
Lesly adds: “We gave the softest to Cristin. She was crying from thirst, so I asked Soleiny to pass me the baby bottle. She looked and looked but couldn’t find it.
“I had to use a bottle cap to give Cristin a sip of water at a time.
“There was a herd of tapirs and they tried to attack us, so we stood still like statues. When we saw an ocelot, I froze with fear.”
The siblings said they batted animals away by throwing sticks and shining a torch at them.
The baby wasn’t well and was living on water alone. I didn’t think she was going to survive, so we decided to stay in one place
Lesly Mucutuy
As the days slid by, Lesly was also confronted with her little brother’s grief. “He asked, ‘When is mum coming, why did we leave her alone?’.
“I explained to him that our mother was dead and he said, ‘No’ and he cried.
“As the days passed, I was starving. Soleiny talked about the food she used to eat, the meat with sauce, chicken, rice and plantain. I thought about all the times I’d wasted food and I cried.
“At night, I thought about Mum and her death. My mum suffered a lot. I thought about the times she gave me advice and I never paid attention.
“She had always told me, ‘Someday you will be an orphan and then you’ll remember me’. And I cried and cried and cried.”
On the 19th day, Lesly was able to stand for the first time and found a stick to help her walk.
Meanwhile, soldiers searching for the family were playing a message from their grandmother Fatima on repeat through speakers suspended on trees.
They also dropped 10,000 leaflets into the jungle, urging the kids to stay put so they could be found. Lesly told Lost In The Jungle: “I heard a voice, it was far away.
“It sounded like my grandmother, but I thought, ‘Is it true or is it a lie? Are they looking for us?’.
Drug-fuelled ceremonies
“I didn’t think so and wanted to keep walking.
“Sometimes, I was dizzy. The trees supported me. One day, Soleiny found a bit of paper that said they were looking for us, to stay in one spot.
“She wanted to stay still because she was tired and didn’t want to walk any more. She kept falling down and hurting herself and Tien couldn’t stand up any more.
“The baby wasn’t well and was living on water alone. I didn’t think she was going to survive, so we decided to stay in one place. I set up a shelter and thought, ‘I hope they’re coming to rescue us’.”
Frustrated search teams were unable to track the kids’ footsteps because of heavy rainfall, but they first found the lost baby bottle, before picking up a trail of partially eaten fruit and used nappies.
When they plotted the children’s journey, they realised they were walking in circles — and time was running out. Indigenous people from the Huitoto tribe joined in the hunt for the missing kids — but it was initially an uneasy alliance.
For decades, the two groups were on opposite sides, with locals under the control of narco-criminal guerillas who fought the military to continue their illegal trade.
As Colombia held its breath waiting to hear the fate of the children, 85 natives were flown in to help, including a shaman who held psychedelic, drug-fuelled ceremonies in which they prayed for the jungle spirits to give up the siblings.
I am not into Brothers Grimm fairytales but, hey, anything to find the kids
Special forces lieutenant Juan Felipe Montoya
By day 26, the two groups were united in their determination to find the Mucutuys, with soldiers even taking part in the rituals.
They were left spooked by the experience. Special forces lieutenant Juan Felipe Montoya told how he flew in a supply of booze after locals suggested they place four bottles of liquor in a cross shape at a river fork.
He said: “I am not into Brothers Grimm fairytales but, hey, anything to find the kids. I knew that river because we had already checked it out, but we searched and searched for it and nothing.
“At some point the laces from our sergeants’ boots got untied and then tied. It happened about five times.
“We were lost for about an hour. All of a sudden, things started spinning.
“Our heads were going to explode. I am Catholic and never believed in the supernatural but I started to think a spirit might be preventing us finding the kids.”
Undeterred, the search continued and just days later, the children were finally found, bedraggled, dehydrated, starving — but alive.
Lesly said: “I heard some voices and footsteps close by, but I see nothing . . . nothing . . . nothing. Then I feel faint from all the emotion after being found. I’m finally getting out of the jungle.”
‘You are a miracle’
Today, the children are living with their mother’s wider family after spending almost two years with Colombian welfare services.
They were not allowed to live with Manuel after officials heard claims he took Lesly out of school and treated her “like a slave”. He had been arrested after reportedly attacking Magdalena with a machete before vanishing to Bogota.
Magdalena’s family and friends lay the blame for her death and the children’s trauma firmly at his door.
One friend says: “Manuel brought another woman into the community. Magdalena went to the port and the other woman was there with him.
“Manuel said the three of them would live together. He was acting crazy, doing what our grandparents do to prove he could have two wives.”
She claimed Magdalena later came to her door covered in blood after her husband allegedly hit her with a machete.
The four kids are now having regular therapy as Colombians follow their progress. Lesly’s aunt, Damaris Mucutuy, said: “’People say you are a miracle’, I told Lesly.
“’Why aunt?’, she asked. ‘Because you fell from the sky and survived for 40 days’. I told her, ‘You are free now, you won’t be anybody’s slave. You will have a real life.
“Picture it as a movie and this is the end of the movie’.”
Lost In The Jungle is available to watch now on Disney+.
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