Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Insane Story of 4 Kids Who Survived a Plane Crash

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

This is the story of Lesly Mucutuy, Soleiny Mucutuy, Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, Lesly Mucutuy, and Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy. The Colombian kids who were lost in the Colombian jungle for 40 days.

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My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. So these four kids and their mom, they're all passengers on a small airplane, and it's passing over the jungle. When suddenly, something goes wrong with the engine.

And the pilot, he tries to radio out, but it's too late. The plane engine fails, and it has started to plummet down into the jungle. And it falls faster and faster until, kaboom, it crashes into the trees below, nose first. And now the front of the plane is a complete wreck, and the pilot and one other passenger, they die on impact. But the mom, she survives, although she's badly injured. And the four kids who were sitting at the rear of the plane, for the most part, they're unscathed. Now these kids are young, they're 13, 9, 4, and 11 months old. And the 13 year old, her name's Leslie.

And Leslie has no idea if anyone's looking for them or if even anyone knows their plane has crashed. Oh, but that's not going to stop Leslie. Her mom is seriously injured, so she has to take charge. And the first thing she and the other kids do is they create a makeshift shelter from branching. and it's held together by using her hair ties, and they all just chill there by the wreckage trying to survive. Four days later, unfortunately, mom passes away due to her injuries. So now it's just the four kids out there all by themselves.

And Leslie knows they need to leave soon and get away from the dead bodies, because the scent will likely attract dangerous animals. So the four kids leave, and they walk, and they walk, and they hide when they think danger is near, and Leslie finds fruit along the way so they can eat, and they had taken a bag of yuccaf, flower from the plane wreckage that they had been dissolving in water so they can feed it to the youngest, the 11-month-old, and they're constantly just walking and taking turns carrying the

baby. And it's the jungle, so of course it rains and their clothes are always wet, and at night the temperature drops dramatically, so they're all cold as fuck. Meanwhile, back in civilization, people are worried about the passengers on that plane. Luckily, the pilot's message was heard as the plane was going down and before it fell off the radar. So they hear this message and they start a search effort right away. But because the plane crashed in the thickest part of the jungle, this search for the wreckage is not going to be easy. So the Colombian military ends up getting involved,

and they dedicate a ton of resources to this. They're sending reconnaissance flights, they're using infrared sensors, and satellite imagery to try and find the plane under all the trees. They even send 110 special forces on the ground to try and look for this plane, and they still can't find it. And interestingly enough, the jungle is almost

too dangerous for these special forces. It's always raining so their clothes are soaked and they keep running out of food and they're constantly dodging wild animals and venomous snakes. But then local indigenous people get involved and they start searching for the kids since they're more familiar with the area. And they have a more spiritual approach to the search, taking ayahuasca, hoping it will point them in the right direction. Now, I don't know if that actually helped much, but I'm sure they had a really good time. But at this point, two weeks have gone by and these kids are still out there. And finally, some indigenous people find the crash site. And when the military investigates, the only thing they find are the bodies of the adults. So they're like, where the hell

are the kids? Now, while this is going on, the kids themselves make this search really difficult. Because not only are they out in the middle of nowhere, but they're also intentionally hiding. Because they're scared and also because Leslie knows that parts of the jungle are populated with rebel militia groups, who aren't very friendly to outside. So when they hear anyone coming, they hide. Plus, these kids aren't your regular iPad kids. They're actually indigenous Wittoto people, and they learn hunting and fishing and jungle survival at an early age.

They were basically raised in areas of the jungle, so they're very good at hiding and very good at staying on their feet. So the military is having a really tough time finding these kids. So they go and get creative. They have helicopters go up and drop 10,000 leaflets with survival tips written on them for the kids and telling them to stay put. They also record the kid's grandmother

telling them to stay in one place so they can be rescued. And then they blare that message through loudspeakers. But none of that works. And no one can find these kids. And at this point, they've all been out there for over five weeks.

And people are starting to wonder if they'll ever find them. Until. At one point, the kids are all hiding and they're suddenly approached by an animal. Not a wild, dangerous animal. It's actually a Belgian shepherd. A dog.

A dog named Wilson, a military rescue dog, and he's apparently very friendly. Now upon seeing this dog, the kids, they know someone's close, and they know this is good news because a rebel militia group wouldn't have a dog as good as Wilson. So for the first time, they don't run and hide. Instead, they mostly stay put knowing a rescue team is close. And Wilson is with them for like two or three days. Meanwhile, rescuers on the other side of the jungle, they follow his paw prints, until they ultimately reach the kids. And so finally, on their 40th day in the jungle, soldiers find Leslie

and her siblings. And they're tired and they're starving. And at this point, they're basically wearing rags. But they're safe. However, there is some bad news. Unfortunately, before the kids were rescued, they got separated from Wilson. And the poor dog, he got lost in the jungle and he was never found again. R. I.P. Wilson.