Confusion surrounds fate of four children 17 days after Cessna crash in Colombia

There Is confusion surrounding the fate of three young children and an 11-month-old baby who have been missing since the Cessna 206 they were travelling in crashed on May 1, 2023.

The children aged 13, nine and four, plus the baby are thought to have survived the crash but had left the wreckage where three deceased adults, including the pilot, were found.

The plane crashed in the dense jungle of Colombia’s Caqueta province when it was flying between Araracuara and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province.

On May 17, 2023, President Gustavo Petro shared a post on Twitter, which has since been deleted, celebrating the children being found alive.

“After arduous searching by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country,” he wrote.

However, according to The Independent, the government’s child welfare agency, ICBF, issued a statement on May 17, 2023, indicating “information was received from the territory that ensures contact with the four boys and girls.”

The statement then went to claim that the “Armed Forces have not yet been able to establish official contact due to the difficult weather conditions and the difficulties of the terrain.”

It is understood one of the deceased, Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of the four children who are of Huitoto ethnicity.