In a rather incredible survival story, four children, ranging in ages from 1- to 13 years-old, were found alive 40 days after their small plane went down on May 1st in the rainforest of Columbia.

Sadly, the plane crash killed their parents.  The mother had survived for four days after the crash, but ultamatly succumbed to her injuries before help could arrive.  Prior to her passing, she told her children to go out and find food and water.  It’s normally best to stay right at the crash site, but if they were thirsty and hungry, leaving might have been the lesser of two evils.

The children were indigenous, so they weren’t entirely unfamiliar with the environment.  Thankfully, their grandmother had taught them how to fish and scavenge for wild food in the forest.  The oldest girl, 13-year-old Leslie, helped take care of the younger ones, and together the group was able to find enough food and water to survive.  They slept in tree trunks to avoid snakes and insects.

Rescuers had actually found the crash site several weeks earlier, and had been frantically searching for the children ever since.  They could see from footprints that they had survived.  The kids, however, traumatized by their ordeal, may have been hiding from rescuers because they were afraid of helicopters looking for them.  They were found around two miles from where the plane went down, hungry and dehydrated, but otherwise OK.