Plane Crash Survivors Rescued After 48 Hours in Alligator-Infested Amazon Swamp in Bolivia (video)

A child, three women and the pilot of the light aircraft were rescued by a helicopter on Friday.

Five individuals, including a child, were rescued from a remote, alligator-infested swamp in the Bolivian Amazon nearly two days after their plane crashed during a flight between the Baures municipality and the city of Trinidad. The rescue occurred early Friday morning, nearly 48 hours after the aircraft went down on Wednesday.

The small plane, carrying pilot Pablo Andrés Velarde, 27, three women, and one child, reportedly experienced technical issues roughly an hour after takeoff. Following a distress signal, all contact with the aircraft was lost. Despite the dire circumstances, no serious injuries were reported among the group.

The pilot executed an emergency landing in a swamp area near an alligator nest. He later explained that spilled fuel from the aircraft may have inadvertently prevented the reptiles from attacking. “We fell into a swamp, and right next to it, there was an alligator nest. But thanks to the fuel that spilled from the aircraft, it contaminated the water and the strong smell of that scared them off, not completely, but they didn’t approach us to attack us,” Velarde said from his hospital bed.

This still from video released by the Bolivian Defense Ministry shows five people being rescued after their plane crashed in an Amazonian jungle.

Survivors subsisted on chocolate and cassava flour salvaged from the partially submerged aircraft. Despite multiple search flights passing overhead, poor weather conditions initially hampered rescue efforts, according to the Bolivian Defense Ministry.

One of the passengers, Mirtha Fuentes, described the emotional moment the group realized they had survived. “We all cried with happiness because we were alive, with bruises, but alive and very lucky, thanks to God and the pilot’s quick thinking and intelligence,” she said.

A search and rescue mission was launched on Thursday after the plane disappeared from the radar of the Beni Department in central Bolivia.

Eventually, local fishermen discovered the stranded group and alerted rescue teams. The Bolivian Air Force deployed a helicopter to extract the survivors and transport them to Trinidad for medical evaluation and recovery.

“Thanks to the work of our specialized personnel, at this time the five rescued individuals, including a child, are alive, and we are making every effort to take them to safe areas and provide them with the medical attention they need,” President Luis Arce stated following the rescue.

Video of the rescue operation shows the crash victims slinging to the crashed plane