What happened to Wilson, this hero dog? This 6-year-old Belgian shepherd was mobilized since May 1 in search of the four missing children in the Amazon jungle after a plane crash in Colombia, when he disappeared in turn about ten days ago. Released into the jungle, he had gone to inspect a search area, but did not return to his master, explains the Colombian newspaper Cambio.
While the children were found alive, as announced by Colombian authorities, Wilson remains nowhere to be found. The army says traces of the animal were found not far from where the children were rescued, but that it was not present when help arrived.
He had found the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of three victims.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed Saturday that he had no new information regarding Wilson's fate. This sniffer dog had made it possible to locate the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of the three adults who died in the crash in early May.
Nuestros heroes of 4 patas. 🇨🇴🫶🏻 #PatriaHonorLealtad#OperaciónEsperanza pic.twitter.com/HRdDDmHK5T
— Ingenieros Militares (@Ingenieros_EJC) June 10, 2023
A few days later, during a search operation, Wilson found the pacifier belonging to Cristin, the barely one-year-old baby who went missing with his siblings.
According to Cambio, Wilson had already disappeared for the first time during the search, for a few hours. He had reappeared dehydrated and slightly injured. After veterinary care, he returned to the field in search of the four children.
This Saturday, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez paid tribute to the various units of the army, "unwavering and tiresome", as well as the indigenous people who participated in the search, spread over 320 km and then 20 km². The Air Force joined the operation with three helicopters. Using a loudspeaker on board an aircraft, a message recorded by the children's grandmother was broadcast. Survival kits have been launched all over the jungle.
Satellite technologies had also been deployed to try to determine the path that children could have taken in this impenetrable green hell, rinsed daily by torrential rains.
