The Brazilian pilot Antonio Sena found himself one day last January flying over the Amazon, when suddenly
the engine of his plane stopped responding
.
He had time to launch an SOS message, but he soon realized that he had no choice but to try to control the unwanted descent, to avoid a fatal impact as he plunged into the jungle.
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Somehow, he succeeded.
And so he was able to get out of what was left of the device without having suffered injuries.
He still did not know that this would
only
be
the beginning of a long journey
.
Shortly after Sena managed to get away from the aircraft, it
exploded
.
He had already recovered some belongings that could be useful: three bottles of water, twelve breads, four cans of soda, a rope and a cloth sack, according to the Efe news agency.
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He also grabbed a knife, a flashlight, a pair of lighters and a low battery phone, The New York Times reports.
He had left for an airlift mission with a fixed destination on an illegal gold mine located in the jungle: a business that moves fortunes every year, at the same time that it
harms protected environments and local communities
.
["If we humans misuse this planet, our creator will cause a great flood that will melt the planet"]
But now he was halfway there, in the heart of the Amazon, alone and in dire need of someone to come after him.
Survive among monkeys and jaguars in a "great pulsating organism"
"I spent the first night and tried to assimilate everything that was going to happen. I have survival training in the jungle that I had done many years ago with a company I worked with," he said.
His first idea was to
wait for rescuers
near the wreckage of the plane.
He saw several search planes fly over the place, but
none managed to locate him
, despite the fact that he flailed and screamed every time he heard the buzzing of one of them.
It was like that for more than a week.
Then, he understood that he had to change his strategy.
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"On the eighth day, I grabbed all my things and began to walk east. I am not going to die here. I am not going to die. I began to walk and face a very lush jungle, I went up the mountains, I went down," he told the agency Eph.
In total, Sena was trapped in the jungle for 36 days.
During that time, he was walking,
trying to avoid jaguars, anacondas, and other dangerous animals
.
Moving around in the mornings and setting up camps to sleep in the afternoons.
There were also some animals that helped him to survive: they were monkeys, which he observed in his search for food, which allowed him to find an edible fruit that became his main source of livelihood.
Still, he
lost 26 kilos
(about 57 pounds), according to El País newspaper.
When everything seemed lost, Sena heard a noise
What saved him from a tragic end was the noise of a chainsaw.
Although he was almost without strength, he decided to try to locate the place from where it came.
He still had miles to go
, but he finally found what he was looking for: it was a chestnut picker.
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This man was part of a larger community, which agreed to take charge of the first aid that Sena's precarious health conditions required.
It was the end of his nightmare.
Maria Jorge dos Santos Tavares, the leader of the group of collectors, was the one who took care of calling the rescuers after
feeding him and offering him a shelter
.
Pilot Antonio Sena (center) poses with chestnut pickers who rescued him after he got lost in the Amazon rainforest.
Antonio Sena Personal Archive / EFE
In all the time he was lost in the jungle, Sena - who says he took the job for illegal mining because the impact of the coronavirus pandemic caused the bankruptcy of his restaurant -
matured a different idea of the Amazon
, he later recounted.
"It is a large pulsating living organism," he said.
Now he
feels that he would "never" work for that business again
.
"I was transformed within that jungle," he said, "thank God that story is transforming many people as well."
His next plan is to tell it in a book.
With information from The New York Times, Efe, El País.