A LONE survivor has been found three days after a plane crash in the Bolivian jungle, according to media reports.

Officials had declared all those on board the Aerocon flight dead before the man, named in El Deber newspaper as 38-year-old father of two Minor Vidal, was found by a navy patrol.

The cosmetics salesman was discovered on a river bank about 200m from where the plane came down in the Amazonian jungle.

He was expected to undergo surgery in Trinidad 800km northwest of La Paz, after being found on Friday morning local time.

The head of the rescue mission, Captain David Bustos, said the man drank his own urine in order to survive.

"From several kilometres (miles) away, we saw a man on the river bank signalling to us. When we got closer, he knelt down and thanked God," Capt Bustos told the BBC.

"He said he'd been trapped in the plane for more than 15 hours and that when he finally escaped he began to walk and survived by drinking his own urine and water from a lagoon."

Eight other people died when the plane crashed last Tuesday.

Mr Vidal, who reportedly had a perforated lung and three broken ribs, told rescuers he wanted to talk to his two daughters and tell them to have faith in God.

The plane was carrying seven passengers and two crew when it took off from the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz headed for Trinidad when it vanished from radar, AFP reported.

It is believed the plane ran into difficulty when it flew into thick smoke caused by forests being burned to clear room for grazing, Sky News reported.

Read more about salesman found alive days after jungle crash at El Deber.

