2023-06-13 02:08:37
BBC News World newsroom
June 13, 2023
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Caption,
Relatives of victims of tragedies generally hope to find their loved ones alive.
After a tragic accident, many think of the worst.
The rescue of the four children lost in the Colombian jungle for more than 40 days after the plane in which they were traveling with their mother crashed and she and two other adults died, shocked the world.
The Soleiny brothers, Tien, Lesly and Cristin – 9, 4, 13 and 1 years old respectively – were found on Friday by military forces with signs of dehydration and insect bites, although they were fine.
Throughout history there have been several dramatic cases in which recovering someone alive was almost impossible, but the feat occurred. These are four of these rescues.
1. Tragedy of the Andes
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The Uruguayan plane crashed into the Andes mountains and more than two months later the 16 survivors were rescued.
On October 13, 1972, a group of rugby players belonging to the Old Christians Club of Montevideo, Uruguay, traveled with friends and family to Santiago de Chile to play a tournament between teams from various countries.
But the Uruguayan Air Force plane in which they were flying crashed in the Andes mountain range.
Without knowing the exact whereabouts of the downed plane, rescue groups searched for days for the remains of the plane and the passengers among the mountains and snow, without success, and suspended the work.
They had all been left for dead.
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Carlos Páez, one of the survivors, with his father.
But at the time of the accident, 12 of the 45 people on board died. As the days went by, others died, eight of them in an avalanche that covered the inside of the plane with snow.
When the food on the plane ran out, the survivors turned to the human flesh of the deceased for food.
In December of that year, two of the rugby players – Roberto Canessa and Fernando Parrado – began a long ten-day walk to find help and, 72 days after the accident, 14 more survivors were rescued from the mountain.
2. The “miracle babies” of Mexico
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The 1985 earthquake was one of the deadliest for Mexico City.
On September 19, 1985, a devastating 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck Mexico City and hundreds of buildings were severely damaged or collapsed, causing thousands of deaths.
The exact number of fatalities from the quake that day is not known for certain, but it ranges from the government figure of 3,692 to more than 10,000, according to the Red Cross.
After days of working through the rubble, rescuers managed to get several newborns alive, who were dubbed “miracle babies.”
One of them was Jesús Francisco Flores, known as the “earthquake boy” or “miracle boy”, who at the time of the earthquake was still in his mother’s womb. She died in the collapse of his house, but he survived because his grandmother took a razor blade and cut open her daughter to rescue him.
3. “The 33 of us are fine in the shelter”
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The rescue of the miners in Chile involved the use of a capsule to get them out of the depths.
On August 5, 2010, a gold and copper mine in Copiapó, in the Atacama desert in Chile, collapsed, trapping 33 miners at a depth of about 700 meters.
At first, the scenario was pessimistic. But the search for survivors began with the hope that the men who were there had been able to find a refuge where they could be safe in the mine.
On August 22, the place where they were sheltering was located and a message of hope reached abroad: “The 33 of us are fine in the shelter.”
The rescuers had to use excavating machines to drill through the rock and get to where the workers were, without harming the conditions of those who were trapped.
The plan was to send a capsule that would allow them to be extracted from the depths one by one.
Finally, after 69 days underground, the miners were rescued.
4. Children of the cave in Thailand
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Rescue experts from various parts of the world traveled to Thailand in June 2018 to rescue children trapped in a cave.
On June 23, 2018, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, 12 children went for a walk with their soccer coach.
When practice was over, they raced their bikes through the paddy fields and up into the forested hills that had been covered in rain in recent days.
Their destination: Tham Luang cave, one of the favorite places for teenagers, who loved to explore the passages and corridors of the Mae Sai mountain system.
The children entered the cave carrying only their flashlights.
They didn’t need more. After all, they only planned to stay there for an hour.
But the cave was quickly flooded and not only could they not get out, but they had to go deeper into the cave so as not to be covered by the water.
The group used rocks to dig 5 meters into a small rock platform about 4 kilometers from the cave entrance and created a cavern where they could stay together and stay warm.
Specialized cave divers from various countries traveled to Thailand to work on the rescue, and after nine days in the dark, the boys were able to see the light again.
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