Tragedy narrowly avoided in the immense and wild Bolivian Amazon, where five people, including a child, were found alive after spending more than two days in a swamp populated by alligators following the crash of their plane. The news was announced by the Bolivian Government, which coordinated the complex search and rescue operations.

The aircraft, a Cessna 172-M Skyhawk registration CP-1099, disappeared from radar on the last day of April during a flight that was supposed to take it from Baures to Trinidad, 400 km northwest of La Paz, in the Amazon River basin. About an hour after takeoff, the pilot reported technical problems, after which all contact with the aircraft was interrupted, raising fears of the worst for the five people on board: the pilot, three women and a child.

The rescue machine was immediately activated: the Bolivian Ministry of Defense, the Vice-Ministery of Civil Defense and the Bolivian Air Force (FAB), with the support of local authorities, specialized personnel and the Bolivian air services company Esabol, had started a vast search operation. The 72nd Air Group of the FAB had carried out several sorties with light aircraft over the area where the accident was presumed to have occurred, accumulating over six hours of flight time that had allowed them to collect the first useful coordinates to locate the missing aircraft.

The breakthrough in the search came at 7:20 am local time on May 2, when an EC-145 helicopter equipped with a crane and special equipment from the Bolivian Air Force Search and Rescue Service took off from Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Shortly afterward, the long-awaited news came: the five occupants of the Cessna had been found alive.

Local fishermen reportedly heard the cries for help from the wreckage. Shocking video footage circulating on social media showed passengers atop the wreckage of the plane, which was submerged in the swamp. The plane was found in the jungle, two days and eighteen hours after it disappeared. The Bolivian Government confirmed that the location was near the community of Pedro Ignacio Muiba and that all five people on board were in stable condition. Authorities said the search had been so long because of "adverse weather conditions" that "air and ground reconnaissance was difficult".

"They received food, immediate medical care and were airlifted to the city of Trinidad, where they are under observation and institutional protection", concluded the official statement, underlining the happy ending to a story that had kept the entire country in suspense.

Below, the video ("The Sun") of the rescue: