Overview

• A Cessna 172 carrying three women, a 5-year-old child, and pilot Andrés Velarde made an emergency landing in a swamp near Pedro Ignacio Muiba after engine failure on Wednesday.
• The group spent nearly 36 hours stranded on the overturned aircraft, surrounded by caimans, an anaconda, and other wildlife, with no access to food or water except for a small amount of manioc flour.
• Local fishermen discovered the survivors on Friday afternoon and alerted the Bolivian Air Force, which successfully evacuated them to a hospital in Trinidad.
• All five occupants survived with only dehydration and stress; one passenger with a pre-existing renal condition remains under medical observation.
• The incident highlights the reliance on air travel in Bolivia's Beni department, where poor road infrastructure makes flying essential for connecting remote Amazonian communities.