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Mother, baby survive Colombia’s jungle plane crash

By EDITORIAL BOARD
26 June 2015   |   3:59 am
A YOUNG mother and her baby have been found alive five days after their plane crashed in the jungle of western Colombia. A Colombian Air Force chief described their survival as “a miracle”. Maria Nelly Murillo, 18, and her one-year-old son were found by rescuers near to where their small Cessna plane crashed in Choco…

airplane_crashA YOUNG mother and her baby have been found alive five days after their plane crashed in the jungle of western Colombia.

A Colombian Air Force chief described their survival as “a miracle”.

Maria Nelly Murillo, 18, and her one-year-old son were found by rescuers near to where their small Cessna plane crashed in Choco province.

According to BBC, Murillo had some injuries and burns while her baby appeared to be in good health.

The twin-engine Cessna plane, which was carrying fish and coconuts, had been flying from the town of Nuqui on the Pacific coast to Quibdo, the capital of Choco.

It disappeared from the radar of the civil aviation authorities 20 minutes into the flight.

When the pilot did not respond to any calls, officials knew something was wrong and dispatched a plane to search the area.

It took the search team two days until they finally spotted a white dot in the dense jungle, which turned out to be the remains of the Cessna.

It had crashed, for reasons not yet known, in the Alto Baudo region.
When the search team reached the Cessna, they found its pilot, Carlos Mario Ceballos, dead in the cockpit.

There was no trace of Murillo or her baby, Yudier Moreno, which the passenger list said had been on board.

But according to Col. Hector Carrascal of the Colombian Air Force, rescuers took hope when they noticed that the cabin door was ajar.

“It could have opened on impact, but it could have been opened from the inside,” he said.

“But that’s when we started to worry. We didn’t have a clue what had happened to them: they could be lost in the jungle trying to survive or they could have died already.”

But then the rescuers found clues, which led them to believe Murillo and her baby could still be alive.
Coconut shells near the plane and a discarded flip flop in the jungle lifted their hopes.

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