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Journalism of Courage
Five people have been rescued after they survived 36 harrowing hours atop a crashed aircraft surrounded by predators in a remote Amazonian swamp. The dramatic rescue took place in Bolivia’s Beni Department after the small plane vanished from radar during a flight from Baures to Trinidad, the BBC reported.
According to officials, the aircraft had been missing for nearly two days and was spotted by local fishermen near the Itanomas River in the Amazon region on Friday. A search and rescue operation, launched on Thursday, located the survivours—three women, a child, and the pilot, 29 — all of whom were reported to be in “excellent condition,” according to Wilson Avila, head of the Beni Department’s emergency operations center.
The pilot, Pablo Andrés Velarde, recounted the terrifying experience from his hospital bed in Trinidad. He said an engine failure forced him to make an emergency landing in a swamp near a lagoon.
“The plane just started to lose altitude all of a sudden,” Velarde said. “I had no choice but to bring it down.”
Stranded on the roof of the submerged aircraft, the five passengers were surrounded by thick jungle waters swamped with wildlife, including alligators and snakes. “We were surrounded by alligators that came within three meters of us,” Velarde told Associated Press. “We couldn’t drink water and we couldn’t go anywhere else because of the alligators.”
He speculated that a fuel leak from the aircraft may have inadvertently protected them. “I think the smell of petrol leaking from the plane is what kept them away,” he said, though he acknowledged there’s no scientific evidence to support the idea that jet fuel deters alligators.
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Adding to the terror, Velarde said the group also spotted an anaconda in the water. With no access to food or clean water, they survived by rationing cassava flour that one of the passengers had brought along.
“The mosquitoes wouldn’t let us sleep,” he recalled. “The alligators and snakes watched us all night, but they didn’t come close.”
