Girl, 13, who survived 40 DAYS in Amazon, reveals mother’s haunting final moments as she lay dying in horror plane crash

On November 16, 2024By Littum

When 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy heard her mother’s screams disappear from under the plane wreckage, she knew it was now up to her to keep her younger siblings alive.

Earlier that morning, May 1, 2023, Lesly and her family had boarded a small plane from the southern Amazon city of Araracuara, Colombia.

The horror crash site in the Amazon rainforestCredit: AFP

A native group found the children after 40 daysCredit: AFP

The children's miraculous survival is retold in the Netflix documentary The Lost Children — The children’s miraculous survival is retold in the Netflix documentary The Lost ChildrenCredit: AFP

It was hoped that the flight, heading north to the country’s Guaviare region, would take Lesly’s family to safety.

They fled their Amazonian village because there were drug gangs nearby.

They had threatened Magdalena’s husband Manuel Ranoque, a native leader with a dubious reputation.

Yet the events that were about to unfold led them into even more danger and heartbreaking tragedy.

Next to Lesly on the small Cessna plane were her mother Magdalena Mucutuy, nine-year-old sister Soleiny, 11-month-old sister Cristin and four-year-old brother Tien.

About half an hour into the flight, as the small blue-and-white plane hovered over one of the wettest, densest and most remote areas of the Amazon, its engine failed.

There was a mayday alert to air traffic control. Not long after, radio contact was lost.

When news of a crash hit the news in Colombia, everyone wanted to know if the children and their mother had survived.

The fate of the family would soon become a national obsession.

Lesly’s account of what happened, which was part of Colombia’s official investigation, is retold in a new Netflix documentary, The Lost Children, through a translator.

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“After the accident, I don’t know how long I was unconscious,” says Lesly.

“When I woke up there was a lot of blood and I got a big cut on my left side which was very painful.

“I could hear my siblings crying and crying. My mother made noises and she stopped. If I had woken up earlier, maybe I could have saved her.”

Magdalena’s grieving sister, Yeritza Mucutuy, tells documentary filmmakers: “I cried so much when I heard the news about my sister, Magdalena, and her children. They were like my children.

“She (Magadalena) was always so cheerful. It was like she didn’t even know what sadness was. She was more like a mother to me. We were very close.”

More than 150 soldiers with dogs were dispatchedCredit: AFP

A baby bottle near the crash site gave rescuers hopeCredit: AFP

Colombian special forces were deployed to the region the Cessna had last been tracked to.

Members of the indigenous Huitoto group, more used to the jungle than the military, started their own search.

They combed the forest together with Magdalena’s husband Manuel Ranoque – biological father of her two youngest children.

The inhospitable jungle terrain was nearly impossible to navigate. The rain poured down 16 hours a day.

There were no roads and the meandering rivers teemed with predators, including piranhas and anacondas.

I mustered all the strength I had as I dragged myself to my knees. I did that for the first 20 days. We were lost. I knew I just had to keep going

Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy

The documentary recreates the massive search effort using real-time footage from Amazon’s search team and interviews with key members.

The hunt was made even more dangerous by the risk that searchers would come face-to-face with guerilla fighters, terrorists operating in the area and funded by the drug trade.

Signs of life

Sixteen days into their search, some of the Huitoto finally had a breakthrough.

They found the wrecked Cessna plane clinging vertically to the thick jungle undergrowth. Aircraft debris was strewn across the jungle floor.

When special forces were called in to identify the bodies, they confirmed that mother Magdalena, 33, had died along with the pilot and another male passenger.

Nevertheless, it soon became clear that the children had miraculously escaped.

The special forces captain “Legionario”, tasked with retrieving the bodies, explains: “Suddenly my sergeant said to me: ‘Captain, I have found a baby bottle.’

The Amazon is a treacherous place - let alone with terrorists, drug traffickers and guerrilla fighters to deal with — The Amazon is a treacherous place – let alone with terrorists, drug traffickers and guerrilla fighters to deal withCredit: Netflix

More than 10,000 flyers were thrown over the forest in the hope that the children would find oneCredit: Netflix

“A bottle in the jungle? Incredible. I was shocked. After this we came across some wild fruit, passion fruit. It had human bite marks on it. As we continued, we found a place of refuge (hiding place).

Searchers also found footprints and later even a soiled diaper.

The children appeared to be alive, but how long and where were they now?

‘Could hardly walk’

As Lesly explains in her account of events, she went into survival mode after the crash.

She says, “I pulled my sister out from under my mom and I know we couldn’t stay and we had to leave the plane so we could find more food and find something to drink.”

The country was gripped by news that the children had survived.

Now the search took on a new life, with everyone focused on finding them.

I got up and decided to leave my sisters and my brother alone. I started walking away to be alone but after 20 minutes I realized I had to go back

Leslie

The rescue mission was dubbed “Operation Hope”. The Colombian armed forces flew 150 soldiers with dogs to the area to search for the siblings.

It seemed almost unthinkable that a baby and three children could survive the elements.

Lesly soldiers on.

She says: “My leg hurt so much and I could hardly stand or walk at all.

“I got all the strength I had when I dragged myself to my knees.

“I did that for the first 20 days. We were lost. I knew I just had to keep going.

“My biggest concern the whole time was keeping baby Cristin alive. I had to take care of her. I knew she needed more food than we had.”

One of the children outlines how Lesly fished to keep them aliveCredit: Netflix

The teenager miraculously kept her pre-teen siblings aliveCredit: Netflix

It was skills that Lesly had learned growing up in her native community that were key to keeping them alive.

“My mother had taught me about fruits we could eat in the jungle,” she says.

“I made a fishing rod out of what I could find. With the rod we were able to catch some fish. We ate the fish raw. It tasted terrible.”

Race against time

Special forces blasted a phone recording from their grandmother over megaphones from military helicopters.

The message was simple: “Children, please, if you can hear this message, stay where you are.”

They sent out more than 10,000 flyers saying, “Stay close to the water. Don’t move.”

“We tried to follow the voice we heard, but it would fade,” says Lesly. “I would try to get my sisters and brother to sleep every night.

They looked scared like they wanted to run away from us so I raised my arms… and said ‘family’

Nicolas Ordonez, volunteer lifeguard

“I didn’t really sleep. One night in the jungle we almost sat on a snake. I was able to kill it with a stick.

“My brother became so weak that he could no longer stand alone. One day I dreamed that they would never find us.

“My heart was beating fast and I was fighting so hard to breathe.

“I got up and decided to leave my sisters and my brother alone. I started to walk away to be alone, but after 20 minutes I realized I had to go back.

“I had to protect my brother and my sisters. Cristin and Tien were both very close to dying.”

Emaciated but breathing

One of the children is treated by rescuersCredit: Reuters

Lesly and her siblings were lucky to have survivedCredit: AFP

Several weeks after the rescue, the military called off the search.

The search area had narrowed, but so had the hope that the children had survived.

The native volunteers prepared rituals and prayed for divine intervention.

Finally, those prayers were answered – 40 days later, a small group of native volunteers finally found the children.

Volunteer Nicolas Ordonez hiked through the unforgiving terrain and was the first to greet them.

He says: “I lifted my head to see where the mates were and then I saw the children.

“They looked scared, like they were going to run away from us, so I raised my arms… and said ‘family’.”

Close to death, the children were a shell of their former selves. They were barely able to move, emaciated… but they were still breathing.

The world’s deadliest plane incidents

by Josh Saunders

HERE we reveal the five deadliest plane incidents and accidents:

5) Ermenonville air disaster – 346 deaths

Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed into the Ermenonville forest, nine miles outside Paris, when an improperly secured cargo door popped open and broke off. It caused such an explosive decompression that cables critical to controlling the plane were severed and the plane plummeted. All 346 passengers and 11 crew members died on the day of the tragedy – March 3, 1974.

4) Saudi Flight 763 & Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 – 349 deaths

The world’s deadliest mid-air collision took place on 12 November 1996 – killing everyone on board both planes. It was determined that the Khazak plane’s crew caused the horror accident after failing to maintain the correct altitude. They attributed it to the crew’s poor English, meaning they struggled to understand instructions from air traffic control, and three separate failures in cockpit training procedures.

3) Japan Air Lines Flight 123 – 520 deaths

Just 12 minutes into the flight between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, the Boeing 747SR-46 began to suffer problems. After another 32 minutes, it crashed into Mount Takamaghara after the flight controls were disabled. The 12 August 1985 disaster initially had up to 50 survivors, but many died while awaiting rescue due to severe injuries. The aircraft had structural failure caused by a botched repair seven years earlier, leading to rapid decompression that tore off part of the tail.

2) The accident at Tenerife airport – 583 deaths

At Tenerife North Airport, there was a terrifying collision that claimed the lives of passengers on two Boeing 747s on March 27, 1977. KLM Flight 4805 collided with Pan Am Flight 1736 as it began its takeoff in heavy fog, unaware that the other aircraft was still on the runway. The impact and resulting fire killed all aboard the planes except for 61 survivors.

1) The 9/11 terrorist attack – 2,700 dead

On September 11, 2001, five Al Queda hijackers took over American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. The planes were then flown into the World Trade Center, known as the Twin Towers, in New York City. The deaths include both those on board the two planes and those on the ground.

Lesly says: “When I saw the man, I collapsed. I felt very good. I no longer had to keep my brother and sisters alive. They were now safe.”

The children were lifted to safety.

But for some, it also brought the indigenous people and the military closer together – two parties that had been fighting each other for decades – together for the greater good.

For many, like Nicolas, the rescue had a profound impact on them.

He says, “The process of finding the children made me feel like I had also found myself in the process. In a way, I was saved along with the children.”

The Lost Children is available on Netflix from November 14