Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Lost Children
Netflix’s documentary,The Lost Children,tells the incredible true story of the four Mucutuy children who survived a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon. In May 2023, the four Mucutuy children (aged 11 months, four years, nine years, and 13 years old), their mother, and two other passengers boarded a small plane to fly to their father’s hometown to see him. Several hours later, news reports confirmed that their plane had gone missing somewhere over the Amazon rainforest, thus beginning the search for the plane and its passengers.
The Netflix documentaryoutlines how the search for the children’s plane became national news because of the danger of the location they were flying over and due to the stories of the children themselves. Their ages made brought widespread concern to the situation because if they had survived the crash, it meant that four young children were alone in the jungle. Both the military and local Indigenous groups, including the community of the children’s father, immediately began searching for the plane and the youths, hoping to reach them as quickly as possible.
The 4 Children Were The Only Survivors Of The 2023 Plane Crash
The Other Three Passengers Perished In The Crash
There were seven total passengers on the plane traveling over the Colombian rainforest, but only the four children survived. Tragically, their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy, as well as the other two adult men on the plane, were killed in the crash. The documentary is dedicated to them. The children were then left alone in the jungle. Lesly, the oldest of the four siblings, later shared that she awoke in the plane and, realizing her mother had died, helped pull her siblings out of the plane to safety.
The children were also left without a source of food or water, meaning that they had to find their own sustenance while also avoiding the dangers of the natural environment.
The Lost Childrenoutlines how the crash left the children alone in the rainforest surrounded by dangerous animals, like jaguars or venomous snakes. Lesly was also injured in the crash and had a large cut on her face and wounded leg. What’s more, the children were also left without a source of food or water, meaning that they had to find their own sustenance while also avoiding the dangers of the natural environment. Lesly even shares at the end of the documentary that she had to kill a snake with a stick after the children almost sat on it.
How Old The Lost Children Were At The Time Of The Crash
The Children Were 11 Months, 4 Years, 9 Years, and 13 Years Old
The oldest sibling, Lesly, was just 13 years old when their plane crashed, and she assumed responsibility for her siblings in their ensuing time in the jungle. Tien Noriel was four years old, and, when the siblings were found, one of their rescuers remarked that he looked like he could not have survived another two days in the jungle. Soleiny was nine years old at the time of the crash.
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The youngest child in the crash, Cristin, was only 11 months old when the plane was lost. One scene inThe Lost Childrenshows several of the soldiers singing happy birthday for Cristin’s first birthday and praying they would find the children that day. While it was still several weeks later that the children were ultimately found, it is incredibly lucky that Cristin’s siblings, particularly Lesly, were smart enough to keep all of them alive.
Operation Hope Explained & How The Lost Children Were Found
The Colombian Military Expanded Their Search For The Children With Operation Hope
The Colombian military very quickly mobilized to help search for the children after the crash, a search which they termed “Operation Hope”. Initially believing that everyone had perished in the crash, they added even more support once it became clear that the children had survived and were wandering the jungle alone. Likewise, Indigenous groups began searching immediately for the children, using their lived knowledge of the rainforest to their advantage.
13 years old
9 years old
4 years old
Cristin
11 months old
The Lost Childrenshows how the military brought in more people, shouted the children’s names into the forest, flew over the forest in a helicopter with a recording of the grandmother’s voice telling the children to stay where they were, and played the same message over megaphones in the forest.The Colombian military had 100 units spread across the area they thought the children might be in. The documentary also showed a group of men throwing pamphlets out of a helicopter telling the kids to stay near the water and not to move, all in an attempt to locate them.
The dynamic between the military and Indigenous groups creates a source of tension inThe Lost Children, though the documentary only provides glimpses of the social circumstances that created the conflict through the voices of the men interviewed.
At the same time,the Indigenous search groups mobilized to find the children as well.However, they did not want to work with the military because of past conflicts and because they felt the soldiers were not familiar with how to survive in the rainforest or how to think like children when moving around. This creates a source of tension inThe Lost Children, though the documentary only provides glimpses of the social circumstances that created the conflict through the voices of the men interviewed.
When it finally became clear that the military was not able to find the children, members of the Indigenous Guard decided to help them search. The groups gradually began to work together, though there was still doubt surrounding whether they would ever find the children.Just when they were all about to give up, one of the last remaining groups of volunteers finally located the children,alive but in need of immediate attention.
How Long The Lost Children Spent In The Amazon Rainforest
The Children Spent 40 Days In The Rainforest
The search for the missing Mucutuy children lasted for 40 days.The children took care of each other, with Lesly serving as the protector of her younger siblings.The documentary reveals that they survived off fruit that they found in the jungle. Lesly also shared in a voiceover that the children were able to hear their grandmother’s message as it played from the helicopter but were never able to locate the voice as they wandered around.
In the second half of the documentary,it’s revealed by the children’s aunt and grandmother that they believed the kids were purposefully hidingfrom the search in order to avoid seeing their father, Manuel Ranoque.The Lost Childrendoes not fully explore the ramifications of these statements or verify with the children whether this is true, but it does add further information about the lives of the Mucutuy children prior to the crash.
In the final minutes ofThe Lost Children, it is revealed that they are currently in the custody of Colombia’s welfare service and that their father has been arrested for abuse.
In the final minutes ofThe Lost Children, it is revealed that they are currently in the custody of Colombia’s welfare service and that their father has been arrested for abuse. After all that the siblings have been through, the one ray of hope that the documentary provides is that all the Mucutuy siblings are alive and well and are able to see their family members again.
