A Child Guided the Rescue of the First Survivor Found in the Accident Zone

A child, around 10 years old, coordinated the evacuation of Brazilian player Alan Ruschel from the site known as Cerro El Gordo, where the dream of the Chapecoense team to conquer their first Copa Sudamericana was destroyed.

"When we were parking the trucks, a child came and told us that some injured people were being taken out from another side," said Sergio Marulanda, one of the locals who cooperated with the displacement of the six survivors of the tragedy through the rough terrain where the plane crashed on Monday night.

Marulanda became an anonymous hero thanks to a call from his brother, a doctor in the region, who asked him to bring his 4x4 truck and those of four other friends to assist in the rescue mission that started two hours after the collision of the Avro Regional RJ85, from the Bolivian airline Lamia.

"A policeman told me: 'you're the first one to arrive, put the child in the truck and go pick up the injured,'" the man, originally from La Unión and a fan of Atlético Nacional, recalled.

Amidst the "shocking" scene, composed of a completely destroyed plane, scattered bodies, and the fuselage spread over at least one hundred meters in diameter, Marulanda received Ruschel in his truck along with rescuers who struggled to stabilize him.

"They placed him inside, covered, he asked about his family and friends, said his hip hurt a lot because he had a fracture," he noted about the first miracle delivered by the mountain.

Pieces of Chapecoense's green attire, which contrasted with the orange color of the Copa Libertadores balls that never rolled in the practice planned by coach Caio Júnior with his team in Medellín the day before the first game of the Sudamericana final against Atlético Nacional, were seen at the scene.

Ruschel, with some consciousness, engaged in brief conversations in Spanish with his rescuers and was then taken to a clinic in the town of La Ceja.

The Unified Command Post (PMU) was installed along the main road of La Unión, accumulating rows of cars, ambulances, and journalists, as it was there where all the actions that allowed the rescue of 6 survivors and 71 bodies were coordinated.

Rescue teams departed from the Command Post in groups, in trucks, motorcycles, and horses, to the site of the tragedy, located approximately 17 kilometers away, which required a walk in the last stretch of over 30 minutes through rough terrain, including an 80-degree slope and a 500-meter descent, according to the experts who attended the emergency.

Heroes with nerves of steel and bodies affected by the cold, which caused their suits to become wet and muddy, were gradually descending from the accident site.

They, over a cup of coffee, recapped their experiences, talked about the difficulty of the terrain, and were surprised to find, like Marulanda, children in the area where lifeless bodies lay.

"If that plane had crashed one minute later, the tragedy would have been greater," the rescuers reflected, realizing that those 60 seconds of difference prevented the collision from happening directly in the municipality of La Ceja.

Among those rescuers was Teobaldo Garay, captain of the Fire Department of Peru, who is visiting the country and was part of the group that stabilized Chapecoense player Helio Hermito Zampier, the last survivor found in El Cerro Gordo.

"I took care of his head and neck, as the patient arrived with severe head trauma and little consciousness," said Garay, who explained that he had to wash the player's scalp and interpret his signals, as he was found under the fuselage of the aircraft along with his identification documents.

In the area, the Director-General of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, Carlos Iván Márquez, reported that the rescue operation was "one of the fastest" that has been carried out in Colombia, thanks to the aerial, land, machinery, and human logistics.

Now, Colombian authorities are focused on the investigation into the causes of the accident and on the tribute with candles, flowers, and white shirts that Atlético Nacional is preparing for tomorrow at the Atanasio Girardot stadium, at the same time when they were supposed to play the final match of the now overshadowed Sudamericana against Chapecoense.