Both of Arturo Nogueira's legs were broken in several places. [4], The pilot applied maximum power in an attempt to gain altitude. Thinking of the suffering that must have caused our families at home made us even more determined to survive, said Sabella. Eating human flesh doesnt taste like anything, really, said fellow survivor Carlitos Paez, the son of an Uruguayan artist. ', Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Photo by EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP via Getty Images. [26] Alfredo Delgado spoke for the survivors. 1972. The aircraft carried 40 passengers and five crew members. Por favor, no podemos ni caminar. They planned to discuss the details of how they survived, including their cannibalism, in private with their families. The group, all of whom are still alive, get together on the Oct. 13 anniversary of the crash for a mass to remember the 29 friends and crew members who perished in the crash at an altitude of more than 13,000 feet, according to the outlet. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Pilot Ferradas died instantly when the nose gear compressed the instrument panel against his chest, forcing his head out of the window; co-pilot Lagurara was critically injured and trapped in the crushed cockpit. We have been walking for 10 days. Canessa, Parrado, and Vizintn were among the strongest boys and were allocated larger rations of food and the warmest clothes. "[16][17], With Perez dead, cousins Eduardo and Fito Strauch and Daniel Fernndez assumed leadership. Then we realized that by folding the quilt in half and stitching the seams together, we could create an insulated sleeping bag large enough for all three expeditionaries to sleep in. The survivors trapped inside soon realized they were running out of air. Some feared eternal damnation. [2] Club president Daniel Juan chartered a Uruguayan Air Force twin turboprop Fairchild FH-227D to fly the team over the Andes to Santiago. Later on, several others did the same. With the warmth of three bodies trapped by the insulating cloth, we might be able to weather the coldest nights. [16] The remaining 27 faced severe difficulties surviving the nights when temperatures dropped to 30C (22F). The reporters clamored to interview Parrado and Canessa about the crash and their survival ordeal. The survivors found a small transistor radio jammed between seats on the aircraft, and Roy Harley improvised a very long antenna using electrical cable from the plane. They dried the meat in the sun, which made it more palatable. Of the 45 passengers aboard, 16 survived by feeding on dead family members and friends preserved in the snow. - those first few days. They carried the remaining survivors to hospitals in Santiago for evaluation. They flew in heavy cloud cover under instrument conditions to Los Maitenes de Curic where the army interviewed Parrado and Canessa. And they continue living. Potter's 600m problem, The amazing survival story of a Uruguayan rugby team in 1972. And at the beginning, when I realized it was what I was going to do, my mind and my conscience was OK. And that first night was really impossible to describe. Parrado was determined to hike out or die trying. We are surrounded with our friends, who died. It was awful and long nights. The pilot waited and took off at 2:18p.m. on Friday 13 October from Mendoza. "With that, our suffering ended," Canessa said. It was really amazing just to manage my mind, my thoughts. [3], As the aircraft descended, severe turbulence tossed the aircraft up and down. Three passengers, the navigator, and the steward were lost with the tail section. [17], On 12 December 1972, Parrado, Canessa, and Vizintn, lacking mountaineering gear of any kind, began to climb the glacier at 3,570 metres (11,710ft) to the 4,670 metres (15,320ft) peak blocking their way west. Find the perfect 72 days stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Parrado and Canessa hiked for several more days. They now used their training to help the injured passengers. We've received your submission. Given that the FH-227 aircraft was fully loaded, this route would have required the pilot to very carefully calculate fuel consumption and to avoid the mountains. The rescuers believed that no one could have survived the crash. No tenemos comida. They were running out of food, so Vizintn agreed to return to the crash site leaving his remaining portions to the other two. Even just moments after the crash, they had to make difficult decisions. Lagurara failed to notice that instrument readings indicated he was still 6070km (3743mi) from Curic. Parrado was one of 45 rugby players, family, friends and crew making a routine flight across the Andes from Uruguay to Chile. [4], The last remaining survivors were rescued on 23 December 1972, more than two months after the crash. And we can change the direction of our life if we propose to do it. Enrique Platero had a piece of metal stuck in his abdomen that when removed brought a few inches of intestine with it, but he immediately began helping others. Tengo un amigo herido arriba. The death of Perez, the team captain and leader of the survivors, along with the loss of Liliana Methol, who had nursed the survivors "like a mother and a saint", were extremely discouraging to those remaining alive.[16][22]. [44][45] Family members of victims of the flight founded Fundacin Viven in 2006 to preserve the legacy of the flight, memory of the victims, and support organ donation. It is south of the 4,650 metres (15,260ft) high Mount Seler, the mountain they later climbed and which Nando Parrado named after his father. Parrado was one of 45 rugby players, family, friends and crew making a routine flight across the Andes from Uruguay to Chile. Regardless, at 3:21p.m., shortly after transiting the pass, Lagurara contacted Santiago and notified air traffic controllers that he expected to reach Curic a minute later. Among those who Parrado helped rescue was Gustavo Zerbino, 72 days trapped on the mountain, and who 43 years later is now watching his nephew Jorge turn out for Uruguay at this World Cup. "Since then I have enjoyed fully, carefully but without fear. In the documentary film Stranded, Canessa described how on the first night during the ascent, they had difficulty finding a place to put down the sleeping bag. Paez shouted angrily at Nicolich. Search efforts were cancelled after eight days. [17] The survivors heard on the transistor radio that the Uruguayan Air Force had resumed searching for them. [27][28] seeking help. Then, he followed the river to its junction with Ro Tinguiririca, where after crossing a bridge, he was able to reach the narrow route that linked the village of Puente Negro to the holiday resort of Termas del Flaco. He flew south from Mendoza towards Malarge radiobeacon at flight level 180 (FL180, 18,000 feet (5,500m)). The plane slammed into a mountainside in rough weather when the pilot veered off-course. I realized the power of our minds. Parrado finally persuaded Canessa to set out, and joined by Vizintn, the three men took to the mountain on 12 December. Others justified it according to a Bible verse found in John 15:13: 'No man hath greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. [3], Michel Roger concurs, stating that: "Read has risen above the sensational and managed a book of real and lasting value."[4]. Witness accounts and evidence at the scene indicated the plane struck the mountain either two or three times. Carlos Pez, 58, waved a small red shoe at a helicopter carrying Parrado, as he did when the Chilean air force rescued him and the others. To try to keep out some of the cold, they used luggage, seats, and snow to close off the open end of the fuselage. On average,. He scribbled a note, attached it and a pencil to a rock with some string, and threw the message across the river. Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 was flying members of a college rugby team and their relatives from Uruguay's capital Montevideo to Santiago, Chile, for a rugby game. The group survived for two and a half months in the Andes In bad. Eduardo Strauch survived the 1972 Andes plane crash of the Uruguayan rugby team. A new softcover edition, with a revised introduction and additional interviews with Piers Paul Read, Coche Inciarte, and Alvaro Mangino, was released by HarperCollins in 2005. Vizintn and Parrado rejoined Canessa where they had slept the night before. The controller in Santiago, unaware the flight was still over the Andes, authorized him to descend to 11,500 feet (3,500m) (FL115). Ive done six million miles on American Airlines, he said. On the afternoon of October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 begins its descent toward Santiago, Chile, too early and crashes high in the Andes Mountains. When he had boarded the ill-fated Uruguay Air Force plane for Chile, Harley weighed 84 kilograms. In bad weather their plane clipped the top of a mountain in Argentina. After numerous days spent searching for survivors, the rescue team was forced to end the search. [43], In 1973, mothers of 11 young people who died in the plane crash founded the Our Children Library in Uruguay to promote reading and teaching. None of the passengers with compound fractures survived. [2] Close to the grave, they built a simple stone altar and staked an orange iron cross on it. They called on the Andes Rescue Group of Chile (CSA). We have a very small space. pp. Where are we? They also built a cross in the snow using luggage, but it was unseen by the search and rescue aircraft. The passengers removed the broken seats and other debris from the aircraft and fashioned a crude shelter. It was very difficult because the weather was very cold. [49] Sergio Cataln died on 11 February 2020[50] at the age of 91. The crew were dead and the radio didn't have any batteries. The next day, more survivors ate the meat offered to them, but a few refused or could not keep it down.[2]. The climb was very slow; the survivors at the fuselage watched them climb for three days. Stranded: I've Come from a Plane that Crashed in the Mountains, I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alive:_The_Story_of_the_Andes_Survivors&oldid=1118386317, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 26 October 2022, at 18:52. During part of the climb, they sank up to their hips in the snow, which had been softened by the summer sun. Fairly early on, you say that hearing your cousin Adolfo say out loud what many were thinking - that you were going to have to eat the bodies - gave you a kind of relief. The story of the 16 survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which was chartered to take an amateur rugby team from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile, in 1972 was immortalized in the best-selling book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read. The Old Christians squared off on Saturday in Santiago against the Old Grangonian, the former Chilean rugby team they were supposed to play back in 1972 when their flight went down. GARCIA-NAVARRO: At one point, you hear on the little radio that you have that the search for you all has been called off. Rugby Union But physically, it was very difficult to get it in the first day. Unknown to the people on board, or the rescuers, the flight had crashed about 21km (13mi) from the former Hotel Termas el Sosneado, an abandoned resort and hot springs that might have provided limited shelter.[2]. As you can imagine, it has been the most awful, terrible days of my life. We're not going to do nothing wrong. They made the sacrifice for others.". We have just some chocolates and biscuits for 29 people, so we start getting very weak immediately. [17][26], They relayed news of the survivors to the Army command in San Fernando, Chile, who contacted the Army in Santiago. Parrado now sees those who died and gave up their bodies for food as the very first "consent donors", like modern organ donors enabling others to live. Canessa agreed to go west. [4] He heard the news that the search was cancelled on their 11th day on the mountain. La sociedad de la nieve, 2nd ed. But after entering severe turbulence, the pilot made a mistake and began descending while they were still over the mountains. While some reports state the pilot incorrectly estimated his position using dead reckoning, the pilot was relying on radio navigation.