Authorities scoured the Amazon for weeks, picking up tiny clues along the way that the children may still be alive, including a makeshift shelter, a soiled diaper and a bottle.
After a false alarm on May 18, Indigenous and military rescuers located the children on Friday.
“A joy for the whole country!” tweeted Colombian President Gustavo Pedro.
The children, all members of the Huitoto Indigenous group, were familiar with the Amazon, and their knowledge of the fruits, animals and terrain helped them survive, relatives said. They needed some luck, too. The plane they were riding in was carrying cassava flour known as fariña.
“When the plane crashed, they took out [of the wreckage] a fariña, and with that, they survived,” their uncle, Fidencio Valencia, told reporters. “After the fariña ran out, they began to eat seeds.”
The children were transported to a military hospital in the capital of Bogota, where they are expected to recover for at least two weeks.