Five individuals were rescued from an alligator-infested swamp nearly two days after their plane crashed in the Amazonian jungle in Bolivia.
The small aircraft, carrying the pilot, three women, and a child, crashed on Wednesday, but the group were not rescued until Friday morning, the Bolivian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
None of the group sustained serious injuries and they managed to survive on chocolate and cassava flour during the ordeal.
The plane departed from the Baures municipality in northern Bolivia and was en route to the city of Trinidad, according to the Ministry.
Approximately an hour after take-off, the pilot reported technical issues before all communication with the aircraft was lost, as per the Ministry.
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The pilot, identified as 27-year-old Pablo Andrés Velarde by local media outlets, successfully executed an emergency landing but landed close to an alligator nest, he shared with local outlet Unitel.
"We landed in a swamp, and nearby, there was an alligator nest. Luckily, the fuel that spilled from the aircraft contaminated the water and the strong odor scared them away. They didn't come close to attack us," he mentioned in an interview from his hospital bed on Friday.
One of the survivors, Mirtha Fuentes, expressed her emotional disbelief after surviving the plane crash. "We all cried tears of joy because we were alive, with some bruises, but alive and very fortunate, thanks to God and the pilot's quick thinking and intelligence," she told Unitel.
Bolivia's defense ministry and civil defense initiated a search and rescue operation, but adverse weather conditions hindered the first 48 hours, as stated by the ministry. Multiple flights passed over the survivors without spotting them, according to local media reports.
The group managed to survive on rationed food retrieved by the pilot from the submerged plane, as shared with Unitel, before they were found by fishermen early Friday morning.
The five survivors were evacuated to the city of Trinidad in a rescue helicopter from Bolivia's Air Force, the defense ministry confirmed.
"Thanks to the efforts of our specialized personnel, the five rescued individuals, including a child, are now safe and receiving the necessary medical attention," Bolivian president Luis Arce mentioned in a statement.