A Colombian woman and her 1-year-old son who were passengers on a twin-engine Cessna that had crashed into the thick jungle on Saturday survived the accident and were rescued four days later, the Associated Press reported.

A local resident of the remote area near the crash site in western Colombia discovered 18-year-old María Nelly Murillo and her child, Yudier Stewar Moreno, on Tuesday and summoned help. Rescuers on Wednesday flew the two to the nearby town of Quibdó, the capital of the country's Chocó Department, where they received medical treatment, the newswire detailed.

The pilot of the aircraft had been killed in Saturday's accident, but Murillo and her son apparently survived because of the plane's cargo: A load of fish on board absorbed much of the impact in the cabin; fearing the Cessna might explode, Murillo climbed a hill to get away from the plane, the AP said based on rescuers' reports.

Colombian Air Force Col. Héctor Carrascal told El Colombiano that servicemen used a megaphone to call Murillo when they discovered that the flight's two passengers were missing.

"Today we were going to replace the rescue crew because their supplies were almost used up," Carrascal detailed. "The search was not turning up any result; we were not finding any trace [of the passengers]; and so we decided to use the megaphone from an air force Black Hawk [helicopter] to invite María Nelly to return to the crash site in order to be able to rescue her and provide her with first aid" the colonel added.

Once contact was established, airmen took the two passengers to Quibdó's El Caraño Airport, and both the mother and her child were "in a good state of health," Carrascal said. During the four days until they were rescued, they had been drinking coconut milk to survive, according to Fox News.

"It's a miracle; it is a very wild area and it was a catastrophic accident," Carrascal told the BBC about the passengers' survival. "His mother's spirit must have given [Yudier] strength to survive," the colonel concluded.

The Colombian Air Force uploaded a series of photos to Twitter of Murillo and her son being transported to a hospital: