Colombian President Gustavo Petro retracts claim that 4 children rescued from plane crash
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has backpaddled on a claim that four children, including an 11-month-old baby, had been found alive in a jungle and rescued after surviving a plane wreck two weeks ago.
The children, aged 11 months, 4, 9 and 13, have been missing since May 1, when the small plane they were traveling in crashed in a dense jungle, killing the pilot and two other adults.
Petro took to Twitter Wednesday to share the miraculous news that the children had been found alive and taken to safety following an intense search by Colombia’s military.
“After arduous searching by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare,” Petro gushed in the now-deleted tweet.
“A joy for the country.”
The president has since deleted that tweet and replaced it with another explaining his decision to retract his previous statement.
“I have decided to delete the tweet because it hasn’t been possible to confirm the information provided by the (child welfare agency),” Petro wrote Thursday.
“The military forces and the indigenous communities will continue in their tireless search to give the country the news it is waiting for.”
He added: “I’m sorry it happened. At this time there’s no other priority other than moving forward with the search until you find them. The children’s lives are the most important.”
Seven people, among them the four children, were flying from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San Jose del Guaviare aboard a Cessna 206 plane when the pilot issued a mayday alert due to engine failure on the morning of May 1.
The bodies of the three adults were later found inside the wreckage, but there was no sign of the children.
Officials with the civil aviation authority, which coordinated the rescue efforts, believe that the children escaped the mangled plane and set off into the rainforest to find help.
Rescuers accompanied by search dogs had previously found discarded fruit the children ate to survive, as well as improvised shelters made with jungle vegetation.
With Post wires
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