Source : Perth Now news
Five people survived 36 hours of being trapped on top of a crashed plane and surrounded by alligators in an Amazon swamp.
Three women, a child and the pilot, Andres Velarde, were rescued by helicopter after the small aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing near the Itanomas Rivia in Bolivia due to an engine failure.
The group were standing on top of the plane, which was flying from Baures to Trinidad, when it was submerged in water, and they were “surrounded by alligators that came within three metres of us”.
He thinks petrol leaking from the aircraft caused the alligators to surround them.
However, the group could not drink water or escape because of the alligators, but they ate local cassava flour.
It comes as a search and rescue operation had been underway to find possible survivors after the plane was reported missing on April 30.
Andres is quoted by Sky News as saying: “We were happy because we could not survive another night.
“We were very tired. We couldn’t stand anymore, because we had to stand so we could keep an eye on the animals.”
