“March 6, on the tarmac of Santarém airport, I hugged my brother and sister for the last time.” Last January, Antonio Sena, a 36-year-old Brazilian pilot, was flying over one of the most remote areas of the Amazon when his plane crashed. He told his miserable story to Pèlerin newspaper:
Brazil is a huge country. Where is your family origin?
Antonio Sena: I grew up in Santarém, a small town in northern Brazil. My grandmother is from Portugal, my grandfather was a “quilombola”, a descendant of a slave. My grandfather was a “seringueiro”: a rubber tree scraper. My father is a designer, my mother runs a small swimming school. My family is not rich, but my childhood was happy. With brother Toninho and sister Mariana, we are very close, even though we are very silly. Maybe I was the baby that people now call the hyperactive baby (laughs).
Have you always wanted to fly?
I first attended three years of college before choosing this path. My father used to say to me, “Whatever you do, you have to be happy in what you do, then you will naturally be good at it.” My father has a point. As a child, I wanted to know the why of everything. As a pilot, this perfectionism allows me to quickly climb the ranks. I have many errors, but I am a champion in procedures! And this coherence saved me in my days of distress.
How?
Pilots resupplying gold divers in the jungle often disregarded safety. I accept this supply job, but I always carry a never-ending kit: two lighters, a knife, a flashlight, drinking water. When the engine of my Cessna failed, I managed to land on the top of the aca palm tree to cushion the shock. Miraculously, I got out of the plane without breaking a bone. And I managed to get 12 cookies, rope and canvas bags out of the cabin before the plane exploded. As a pilot, I took a jungle survival course and I knew I would need water, fire, and something for shelter.
Every day, you have to make important choices. Survival is also an intellectual adventure?
Right. Must constantly analyze the situation: at all costs to go forward or not? Taking a break to save energy? I'm 120 kilometers from where people live and I know I'll meet many other people as I follow this river (he opened his phone, he downloaded it before taking off). Since I didn't have a compass, I walked east, taking the sun to compare. I don't hunt anymore: I have no weapons or skills to hunt. I watched the monkeys and tried to find the same fruit they ate.
Are you afraid to die every day?
Yes, but I can handle it. In this challenge, I realized that only today is the day that belongs to me. Maybe I will die tomorrow or in 30 years, no one knows. So I had to figure out right away what I had to do. On a beautiful day, I walked for 5 hours. The day was bad and when there were many obstacles, I only walked for 2 hours. Then I realized in 36 days of walking, I had only walked 27 kilometers as the crow flies! It seems absurd. But in the jungle, time matters, not distance. Even if I advance with difficulty, I have to start over. Every minute.
His adventure is reminiscent of that of the pilot Henri Guillaumet (1902-1940), of the Aéropostale correspondence, whose plane crashed in the Andes. Without a strong will to find a wife, he would surrender, he wrote…
Me too, I want to find my relatives again. Family ties are the strongest emotional bond throughout our lives. I was hungry, drenched, exhausted… And it was this love that kept me going. Imagine, for 36 days without seeing your loved one's face, not hearing a voice that isn't yours! To keep my spirits up, I tell myself funny stories. I challenge the spider monkeys: “Give me a little bit of your territory so I can sleep!” After 15 days, I could still get close to the wild squirrels and wild boars without scaring them. My smell has become the smell of wild animals.
He also questioned God in these difficult days…
I said to God, “God, I don't want to complain, I'm alive but I'm so hungry! Let me find a cocoa, a bird's egg, whatever!" I once had to walk for 3 days with nothing to swallow.
“What kept me going was I found my faith again,” he wrote. Have you lost your faith?
How to say? My parents are Catholic, then my parents joined the Protestant Church when I was 8 years old. At home, we pray at mealtime and before bed, but like many Brazilians, we do it automatically. I have believed in God for a very long time. Until my father was hospitalized and ended up in the intensive care unit in Santarém. For forty-eight hours, I prayed to God, "Give me time to see my father, give me time to say goodbye to my father." But my father died without me… I was only 19 years old. I have lost faith. I have always been taught, “If I pray with all my heart, God will answer me. And everything fell apart. I no longer believe God can have any effect on my life. Until I recorded my video-will.
Does that mean?
On the fifth day, the rescue plane flew over where I crashed but they didn't see me. I understood they wouldn't come back again and the next day I tried to enter the woods for the first time. It was so insurmountable that I had to desperately return to the wreckage of the plane. For a rational person like me, it was clear that I had no chance. With my cell phone, I shoot a video for my family.
I was deeply moved (silent). And suddenly, I was talking to God like I was when I was a kid: “God, in three or four weeks I'm going to starve. I don't want to go through this ordeal. If that's my destiny, please send me a jaguar! I won't fight anymore." In Brazil, it is said, “hope is the last thing before death.” But when hope fades, the heart is so afraid and so hateful that it just wants to stop living. In the spiritual abyss, at that moment I thought of my family: “I will never sit at the same table with them again. I will never speak to my mother again." And from my heavy heart suddenly came a form of prayer. A love that transformed me and I hit the road again.
Someone else, in a similar situation, could have cursed God…
That day, I really understood the power of faith. My physical and mental strength alone, won't be enough to save me. How many times have I cried alone in the woods? (His voice breaks). “God, I can't take it anymore. I won't be able to do it. And I heard a voice say to me, "But don't you want to see your family?" And I said, "Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing you." And that voice said to me, "Go that way." At that moment, my soul felt absolute peace. It's like there's an outside force… I'm sure, I'm covered by the prayers of people of all faiths who, when they heard I was missing, prayed for me. It was a forest, a terrifying situation. And I said to myself, “I have to walk, then go. Until the 36th day, when I was exhausted, I met the camp of the seed pickers in Brazil.
“Dona Maria Jorge is the soul of the group of seed pickers who met me. She took care of me like her own child. I call her almost every day.”
What essential thing did you learn in the forest?
The forest made me realize that we are not only physically and mentally, but we also have a soul and must take care of it. The Amazon rainforest, too, is a living organism that we must take care of. I am angry about this looting of resources. From now on, my mission is to make my story known to many people to protect the forest. Although I love being a pilot, the goal that burns my heart today is that I have to testify.
Where will you be January 28, the anniversary of your accident?
Probably in Santarém, my hometown. With my family, for whom I have sacrificed so much.
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Antonio Sena's World
T-shirt
Dirty, crumbling… This T-shirt with the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been with me throughout my adventure. Looking back, I see a sign there. My brother and I got this same tattoo on our arms after we met. I also brought along a shirt soaked in oil from the plane crash, which I used as a igniter. Every day I tore a piece.
Belts As I lose more and more pounds, I punch a new hole. In the end I had to wear shorts underneath because the pants came off… In total I lost 27 kg. Every time I have to eat fruit, I don't remember how to chew! My first meal, my jaw stopped listening to me.
The shoes I keep well because I know if I hurt my foot, I can't walk, I'll die.
Knife An essential tool used for all sorts of things…except as a weapon! Without any tools, I hit the tree trunk with a big stick to make a noise to scare away snakes and other animals.
Let's live to the end, Rester vivant jusqu'au bout, Antonio Sena, Publishing House. X.O.
Source: Francis