FIVE plane crash survivors have been rescued after enduring a harrowing 36 hours trapped in a swamp teeming with alligators.
The pilot, a young child, and three women narrowly avoided death when their plane crash-landed in the dark reaches of the Amazon.
The small aircraft had to make an emergency landing, leading them into the murky water before the plane overturned on impact.
This left those on board desperately battling to escape the wreckage before they drowned or were snapped up by the lurking alligators.
All five miraculously managed to climb out before being left to cling on to the underside of the plane’s wreckage as it floated on the swamp.
They were left stranded on the spot for the next day-and-a-half.
Pilot, Pablo Andres Velarde, said during the horror period the group witnessed “huge” alligators swim to within 10ft of them.
They even saw an anaconda stalking them in the water.
The terrified pilot recalls the apex predators constantly staying near the group throughout the night.
During the dark evenings, the five survivors were forced to use their phones to provide some light and to warn off the gators.
Velarde, 29, says he feared for his life the entire time but believes they kept their distance due to leaking petrol coming from the crashed plane.
Another major issue was food and drink.
The plane was only on a short-haul flight from Baures to Trinidad in northeastern Bolivia.
This meant there were little supplies on board the small aircraft.
The group didn’t have anything to drink and the only thing they had to eat was cassava flour which they managed to rescue from the plane.
As nightfall approached on their second day on top of the doomed plane, the pilot says they heard a lone fishing boat in the distance.
We were happy because we could not survive another night
Pablo Andres Velarde
He managed to use his remaining phone battery to flash a light at the crew who called in emergency help.
They were later airlifted to a hospital by a rescue helicopter.
Dramatic footage shows the group huddled together and standing on top of the orange aircraft as rescue teams flew overhead.
Wilson Avila, director of the Beni Department’s emergency operations centre, said they were all in an “excellent condition”.
A relieved Mr Velarde admitted: “We were happy because we could not survive another night.
“We were very tired. We couldn’t stand anymore, because we had to stand so we could keep an eye on the animals.”
Ruben Torres, Director of the Beni Region Health Department, thanked all of those involved in the rescue mission.
He added that there had been “a lot of speculation about the case” and “many theories” around why the plane went missing.
Velarde soon clarified what had made him land in the dangerous region.
He told local media his plane suffered an engine failure which meant he had to perform an emergency landing just over the Itanomas River.
During the decline Velarde felt the plane suddenly start to lose altitude.
He had to abort his plans to land the plane somewhere out in the open and instead had to focus on simply making a safe landing.
This left him with no choice but to make the aircraft touchdown in a swamp near to a lagoon.
