MIRACLE: Mother and baby survive Colombia jungle five days after plane crash

Telegraph Uk reported that "It has been hailed as a miracle, or a testament to the power of a mother's love. Five days after a plane crash in a remote corner of the Colombian rainforest, a woman and her months-old baby have been found alive, having survived the jungle on nothing but coconuts...
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Maria Nelly Murillo, 18, and her infant son Yudier Moreno, less than a year old, were flying in a twin-engine Cessna between the towns of Nuquí and Quibdó in the north-western department of Chocó when their plane crashed early on Saturday afternoon. The pilot was killed in the crash and the pair - the only other passengers in the plane - were largely unharmed, apparently insulated against the impact by the plane's cargo of coconuts and large fish.

But Ms Murillo's extraordinary journey did not end there. Trapped in the wreckage, but fearful the plane would explode, she eventually managed to force open the door and carry her baby up a hill to a safe distance.
A rescue team arrived at the crash site the following day to find the plane empty, aside from the body of the pilot in the cockpit. But their discoveries in the rear section of the plane, partly intact, gave them hope that its occupants were still alive.

"We saw how the plane was, there was food, some peeled coconuts as if they had used them to peel out the water and feed themselves, we did not see her body anywhere, we did not even find traces of blood," said Rafael Caviedes, a search and rescue official who coordinated efforts by the air force and Red Cross, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
The fact that she had survived the crash itself was a one in a million chance, he said. More rescue workers arrived, and they began to comb the area, finding a sandal and other items that Ms Murillo had dropped to mark her path.

"They found some belongings and children's toys, because of which they initiated the search," Air Force Colonel Hector Carrascal was reported as saying by the newspaper El Colombiano.
But despite following the clues, their search was fruitless, and by Tuesday they were become increasingly fearful for the pair's condition, Mr Caviedes said. More rescuers arrived, however, this time with a plane equipped with loudspeakers, which began to circle the area with a message urging the woman not to give up in her fight for survival.

Ms Murillo, meanwhile, had constructed a makeshift shelter and bed for her baby to try to protect him from the elements. On Wednesday, five days into her ordeal and still having eaten nothing but coconuts, she made her way to a nearby stream, following the riverbank in a desperate attempt to find help.
The same day, the air force was going to replace its rescue team, as it was running out of supplies, Col. Carrascal said, adding: "The search wasn't giving results, we weren't finding any trace." They decided to take out a Black Hawk, calling out on loudspeakers for Ms Murillo to return to the site of the accident. Finally, burned, starving and exhausted, she spotted a Red Cross volunteer named as Acisclo Rentería Palacios - and promptly burst into tears.
The mother and baby have since been transported to a hospital in Quibdó, the departmental capital, where they are receiving medical treatment. Ms Murillo has suffered burns to her face, arms and legs, but her young son was reported to be completely uninjured.
To her rescuers, it was not they who saved her but her own determination and maternal instinct - or perhaps a little divine intervention. Both Mr Caviedes and Col. Carrascal said her survival was miraculous.
"She was saved by a mother's love," Mr Caviedes insisted. As well as, he acknowledged, a masterful knowledge of the local terrain.
telegraph.co.uk