How a 4-year-old boy was miraculously rescued 6 days after going missing in Tsavo East National Park

A four-year-old boy who went missing in Asa village, which borders Tsavo East National Park, on November 28, 2022 was rescued on Sunday, December 4, six days after his initial disappearance.

According to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the minor was herding cattle together with his brothers when a freak storm separated him from his kin and as a result the boy got lost in the surrounding wilderness.

Immediately after the boy’s disappearance, the Chief of Asa organized a search party of around 70 people to track him down.

With little to no success in tracing the boy’s whereabouts, the chief, on the evening of November 29, reached out for air support from one Roan-Carr Hartley, a pilot who had reportedly found another missing boy in the area just days before the incident. 

“It was too late to initiate a search that night, but the following morning, I left Kaluku HQ at around 6:15am and flew 70 minutes to reach the boy’s village. By the time I was overhead, a search party of 70 men were fanning through the wild scrubland in search of the little boy,” Hartley said according to the wildlife trust.

 “With no way of communicating with them while I was in the air, I had organised for the search party to walk with a white cloth tied to a long stick, which would make it easier to find them in the dense bush. After locating the group in this area I began my search.”

Four hours of scanning the surrounding wilderness yielded nothing save for an empty fuel tank and a few hyenas and jackals.

“After refueling, I flew back later in the day to resume the search. I flew for another 3.5 hours before we ran out of daylight and I had to return to base. It seemed hopeless searching for a tiny boy in such a huge expanse of wilderness. There have been times where I haven’t been able to locate a particular elephant for up to a week, let alone a four-year-old child,” said Hartley.

Owing to the heavy downpour, the boy’s tracks which had last placed him approximately 7 kilometres from his village went cold, forcing the minor’s kin to reluctantly carry on with the search without aerial support.

“The chief and the boy’s family determined that in the absence of fresh tracks and a general area to narrow down the search, nothing more could be done from the air. It would be a case of looking for a needle in a haystack. Instead, the search party would continue on foot,” said Hartley.

As luck would have it, the search party rediscovered the boy’s tracks on the eve of December 3, 2022, some 15 kilometers away from his village.

“I was in shock that the boy was still alive, let alone walking. After nearly a week of heavy rainfall, with no food and predators roaming the area, one can be forgiven for losing hope,” said Hartley.

“However, hope had been reignited, and I was incredibly eager to keep searching. I kept thinking of the poor little guy alone out there and wanted to do everything possible to find him — even if it seemed like an impossible mission.”

On the morning of December 4, Hartley took to the sky and after flying for 70 minutes arrived at the destination in which the ground search party had last pitched camp.

“Once again, I couldn’t speak with the ground teams while in the air, but I had been given the general direction to fly north of the village for 15 kilometres,” he said.

“This time, however, the search party was completely out of communication, so there was no way to ask them to signal the aircraft. They themselves had been out for three days looking for the boy, surviving off milk mixed with water.”

As he continued his search for the rescue party, Hartley decided to go west of his initial location and it is here that he surprisingly saw a small figure walking alone in the surrounding wilderness.

“Off my left wing, I saw a tiny figure below me, surrounded by a mass of shrubs and trees. I could not believe my eyes, but there he was: a tiny boy surrounded by endless wilderness. I was in shock that he was still alive and walking. I had not even begun to look for the boy; at that point, I was still searching for the group, which made it 10 times harder to believe what had just happened,” he said.

According to Hartley, the visibly weakened boy initially attempted to hide from his plane which was at this point hovering above his location.

“He was obviously hypoglycaemic and stumbling as he walked. I immediately gained altitude and began to circle tightly, keeping my eyes fixed on him. In a land where everything looks the same, once you lose sight of something it can be very difficult to find it again,” said Hartley.

“With no way of communicating with the search party, I was trying to figure out how to get a team to him, when the nearest village was 18 kilometres away.”

After circling the boy’s position for three hours, three men who were part of the search party appeared near the boy’s location after noticing Hartley's plane circling the area. 

 “I opened the door of the aircraft and began pointing at the boy. They realised I had found something and began running. They eventually got to the boy, who was frozen still in disbelief that his ordeal was over. Upon reaching him, they lifted him above their shoulders and began cheering and chanting,” said Hartley.

“It was a sight that made me well up as I watched from above. Finding him was a near-impossible objective, but somehow the stars aligned and he happened to be standing in a small, open area at the very moment I decided to turn.”

The boy was escorted back to his village by the search party on foot while Hartley headed for the same settlement.

The pilot arrived before the search party and was directed to the boy’s parents who couldn’t believe that the boy was found alive.  

“When I showed his mother the photos of her boy, she broke down into tears. She couldn’t believe he was still alive and was flooded with emotion, as one can imagine. The rest of the village — brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents — all crowded around the camera, in disbelief that he had finally been found,” added Hartley.

“We waited two hours, drinking tea and telling stories, until we heard the distant chanting of the search party, who had carried him for 18 kilometres. The women of the village began to chant and dance to welcome the boy home.”

The boy, whose feet were full of blisters and cuts, was given water to hydrate before doctors attended to him.

As a show of appreciation, the boy’s parents gifted Hartley a billy goat which he graciously accepted.

“ I received a message from the boy’s parent’s later with the update that their son has fully recovered and is out playing with his friends. They also shared that they have added Roan to his name, which left me very touched. His friends have nicknamed him ‘Pilot’ — a wonderful way to commemorate his six-day saga!” stated Hartley.