Alan Ruschel had a guardian angel.
The 27-year-old player on the tragic Brazilian soccer team – one of only six survivors of the horrific plane crash – was found by a quick-thinking 10-year-old Colombian boy.
“When we were parking the trucks, a child arrived and told us where the wounded were located,” said Sergio Marulanda, a local villager, The Sun of the UK reported.
“A policeman told me, ‘You are the first to arrive, take the boy in the truck and go pick up the wounded,'” recalled the man, a resident of La Unión who rushed to the scene in his pickup truck.
The young hero — whose identity has not been revealed – then helped Marulanda and other civilian rescuers reach Ruschel in the remote, soggy mountainside after the chartered Avro RJ85 jet crashed near Medellin.
When they reached the scene of devastation, where bodies and shredded green uniforms were strewn in and around the shattered fuselage, the rescuers prepared to evacuate Ruschel.
“He asked about his family and his friends, he said that his hip hurt a lot because he had a fracture,” Marulanda said.
Rescue workers continued to stream in on trucks, motorcycles and even horses, but had to hike for about 30 minutes on rough terrain that included an 80-degree climb and a descent of about 1,500 feet to reach the wreck, officials said.
“If that plane crashed a minute later, the tragedy would have been greater,” one rescuer said, explaining that the aircraft would have plunged onto a local community.
Meanwhile, Ruschel was in stable condition Wednesday, said clinic director Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez, the Daily Mail reported.