Plane passengers left stranded in alligator-infested waters for 36 hours

A group left stranded in alligator-infested waters after their plane was forced to make an emergency landing was finally rescued Friday after 36 hours.

Five people were found atop the small plane, which disappeared from the radar of the Beni Department in central Bolivia.

The survivors — three women, a child and their 29-year-old pilot — were discovered by fishermen in Bolivia’s Amazonas region on Friday in “excellent condition,” Wilson Avila, director of the Beni Department’s emergency operations center, told the BBC.

The survivors — three women, a child and their 29-year-old pilot — were discovered by fishermen in Bolivia’s Amazonas region. Facebook/Ministerio de Defensa Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia

Although alligators were less than 10 feet away, the plane’s fuel that was leaking into the water may have kept the predators at bay.

Engine failure caused the aircraft to make an emergency landing in a swamp close to the Itanomas River. Facebook/Ministerio de Defensa Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia

“We couldn’t drink water and we couldn’t go anywhere else because of the alligators,” pilot Andres Velarde told the outlet.

Engine failure caused the aircraft to make an emergency landing in a swamp close to the Itanomas River during a flight from Baures in northern Bolivia to Trinidad.

During the harrowing experience, the passengers ate local cassava flour that one had brought for the ride.