Five people were rescued after they survived 36 hours atop a plane in an alligator-infested swamp in the Bolivian Amazon after they were forced to make an emergency landing, local officials and the pilot said Friday.
Everyone on board – three women, a child and the 29-year-old pilot – were rescued from their perch atop the capsized plane in “excellent condition,” said Wilson Avila, director of emergency operations center in the Beni region.
The plane was traveling from the town of Baures to the north-central city of Trinidad when it ran into trouble.
Bolivian Civil Defense Vice Ministry
Andres Velarde, the 29-year-old pilot of the single-engine aircraft, told local media from his hospital bed that the plane suddenly began to lose altitude.
He looked for an open space to land but had to settle for a swamp near a lagoon.
The five found themselves “surrounded by alligators that came within three meters of us,” Velarde said, adding he suspected that the kerosene leaking from the plane had kept the toothy predators at bay.
He said they also saw an anaconda in the murky waters.
For sustenance, they ate a local cassava flour that one of the passengers had brought on the trip.
“We couldn’t drink water and we couldn’t go anywhere else because of the alligators,” Velarde said.
A search and rescue mission was launched on Thursday after the plane disappeared from the radar.
Bolivian Civil Defense Vice Ministry 
The five were rescued after being spotted by local fishermen and taken to the hospital via helicopter.
Ruben Torres, Director of the Beni Region Health Department, said that there had been “many theories” after the plane went missing, Reuters reported.
“I am really happy because in the end all the institutions joined together to be able to find the missing people and save those lives,” he told Reuters.