Five people survive 36 hours in swamp 'surrounded by alligators' after plane crashMoment survivors are rescued after plane crash in BoliviaA search and rescue mission was launched on Thursday after the plane disappeared from the radar of the Beni Department in central Bolivia. The small plane was found by local fishermen in Bolivia's Amazonas region on Friday having been missing for 48 hours. Five people have been rescued after spending 36 hours atop a plane in an alligator-infested swamp in the Amazon after it was forced to make an emergency landing, local authorities said. The five that had been on board stood on top of the plane and were "surrounded by alligators that came within three metres of us". "We couldn't drink water and we couldn't go anywhere else because of the alligators," Velarde said.