Colombia plane crash: Search continues for lost rescue dog Wilson

When it was learned on Friday that four children lost in the Amazon jungle in Colombia had been found, the story drew comparisons to Gabriel García Márquez’s The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, a non-fiction book that recounts how a sailor survived at sea for 10 days.

But the story of the children — 13-year-old Lesly, Soleiny (nine), Tien Noriel (five) and Cristin Neriman (12 months) — has more in common with a miracle. Not only did they manage to survive 40 days in the thick jungle, where it’s impossible to see more than 20 meters away, they did so after surviving a plane crash that killed their mother and two other adults.

But while the children have been found, the search continues for Wilson, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd dog who went missing during the operation to locate the minors.

Wilson was born and raised among soldiers. On June 8, the day before the children were found, the army reported that Wilson was lost in the jungle. It’s believed the rescue dog became disorientated due to the difficult terrain, humidity and unfavorable weather conditions. But judging by the footprints found on the ground, he was close by — not only to the soldiers, but also to the children, whose traces were found a short distance away.

The search for the children — which had kept Colombia in suspense since the plane wreck was discovered on May 16 — was dubbed Operation Hope and involved more than 100 members of Colombia’s Special Forces, as well as Civil Defense members, military dogs and more than 70 indigenous people, whose knowledge of the jungle proved key to the mission. On Friday, the children were found, and it was announced that Wilson had also been located. But this was not the case. It was yet another twist in a story that has been marked by misinformation and false alarms.

The incorrect news that Wilson had been found triggered a flood of euphoric responses on social media, which elevated the rescue dog to hero status. “Put Wilson on the $200,000 [peso] bill,” wrote one user. Others shared drawings of the dog that quickly went viral.

According to Lesly, the eldest of the four rescued children, Wilson did find them. “Lesly smiled at us, hugged us, and told us about the dog,” said Astrid Cáceres, the director of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF), on Saturday. That dog was none other than Wilson.

Finding Wilson is now the main goal of the soldiers who remain in the Amazon jungle. General Helder Giraldo, the commander of the Colombian Military Forces, has ordered them to follow the dog’s footsteps. “A fallen comrade is never abandoned in the field of combat. Operation Hope is continuing in the search for our dog Wilson, who, while tracking and in his eagerness to find the children, distanced himself from the troops and got lost.”

The army has said Operation Hope will not be over until Wilson is found. General Pedro Sánchez, the commander of the search operation, explained on Saturday that since Wilson went missing on May 18, soldiers made contact with the dog on two occasions, but in both instances, it became lost again. According to Sánchez, when the dog met the children, Wilson was emaciated due to the difficulties of finding food in the jungle. The new goal of Operation Hope is to find Wilson so that the story of the rescued children can have an even happier ending.

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