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[19], The survivors had very little food: eight chocolate bars, a tin of mussels, three small jars of jam, a tin of almonds, a few dates, candies, dried plums, and several bottles of wine. 2022-10-13 21:00:26 - Paris/France. We ripped open seat cushions hoping to find straw, but found only inedible upholstery foam Again and again, I came to the same conclusion: unless we wanted to eat the clothes we were wearing, there was nothing here but aluminum, plastic, ice, and rock. To live at 4,000m without any food," said another survivor, Eduardo Strauch, 65. The rugby players joked about the turbulence at first, until some passengers saw that the aircraft was very close to the mountain. This edition also has a new subtitle: Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds: The Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes. I realized the power of our minds. I want to live. They followed the river and reached the snowline. Among those survivors was a young architect named Eduardo Strauch, who held off writing about the tragedy until now. On Oct. 13, 1972, a plane carrying 45 passengers, including the Old Christians Uruguayan rugby team, crashed in the Andes between Chile and Argentina. They decided instead that it would be more effective to return to the fuselage and disconnect the radio system from the aircraft's frame, take it back to the tail, and connect it to the batteries. Paez shouted angrily at Nicolich. "[17] Parrado saw two smaller peaks on the western horizon that were not covered in snow. It doesn't taste anything. After ten days the group of survivors heard on a radio that the search for them had been called off. 176-177. They built a fire and stayed up late reading comic books. [17], Knowing that rescue efforts had been called off and faced with starvation and death, those still alive agreed that, should they die, the others might consume their bodies to live. Paez said he has made a career of traveling the world to lecture about his ordeal in the mountains. The flight was carrying 45 passengers and crew, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team, along with their families, supporters, and friends. 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. All 16 survivors of the 1972 Andes plane crash have reunited for the 50th anniversary, according to a report. It was awful and long nights. It filled the fuselage and killed eight people: Enrique Platero, Liliana Methol, Gustavo Nicolich, Daniel Maspons, Juan Menendez, Diego Storm, Carlos Roque, and Marcelo Perez. Parrado ate a single chocolate-covered peanut over three days. They flew in heavy cloud cover under instrument conditions to Los Maitenes de Curic where the army interviewed Parrado and Canessa. The remaining survivors of an Uruguayan rugby team were rescued when their plane crashed into the Andes after months of waiting. The pilot waited and took off at 2:18p.m. on Friday 13 October from Mendoza. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, 16 survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, Massive wildfires torch Chile, leaving 23 dead, hundreds injured, NYC lawyer, 38, who devoted his life to public service shot dead while vacationing in Chile, Scientists unearth megaraptors, feathered dinosaur fossils in Chile, Chile fires hit port and coastal city, two dead. harrowing tale of survivors of an airplane crash. Survivors were forced to eat the bodies of their dead friends, a. Parrado and Canessa hiked for several more days. Canessa agreed. She had strong religious convictions, and only reluctantly agreed to partake of the flesh after she was told to view it as "like Holy Communion". Although there is a direct route from Mendoza to Santiago 200 kilometres (120mi) to the west, the high mountains require an altitude of 25,000 to 26,000 feet (7,600 to 7,900m), very close to the FH-227D's maximum operational ceiling of 28,000 feet (8,500m). Another survivor Daniel Fernandez, 66, held the trophy that would have been the reward for the game to be played the day of the crash. As the weather improved with the arrival of late spring, two survivors, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, climbed a 4,650-metre (15,260ft) mountain peak without gear and hiked for 10 days into Chile to seek help, traveling 61 km (38 miles). Parrado lost more than seven stones (44kg) along the way, approaching half of his body weight. Instead, it was customary for this type of aircraft to fly a longer 600-kilometre (370mi), 90-minute U-shaped route[2] from Mendoza south to Malarge using the A7 airway (known today as UW44). The remaining portion of the fuselage slid down a glacier at an estimated 350km/h (220mph) and descended about 725 metres (2,379ft) before crashing into ice and snow. The solar collector melted snow which dripped into empty wine bottles. On 23 December 1972, two months after the crash, the last of the 16 survivors were rescued. When someone cancelled at the last minute, Graziela Mariani bought the seat so she could attend her oldest daughter's wedding. [47], In March 2006, the families of those aboard the flight had a black obelisk monument built at the crash site memorializing those who lived and died.[48]. Cataln talked with the other two men, and one of them remembered that several weeks before Carlos Pez's father had asked them if they had heard about the Andes plane crash. Not immediately rescued, the survivors turned to cannibalism to survive, and were saved after 72 days. Nando Parrado says they survivors 'donated their bodies' and made a pact. 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. [7][3] The aircraft, FAU 571, was four years old and had 792 airframe hours. Harley lay down to die, but Parrado would not let him stop and took him back to the fuselage. [4] He heard the news that the search was cancelled on their 11th day on the mountain. The next collision severed the right wing. He said the experience scarred him but gave him a new-found appreciation for life. The rescuers believed that no one could have survived the crash. 'Alive': Uruguay plane crash survivors savour life 50 years on On October 13, 1972, a plane carrying an amateur Uruguayan rugby team, along with relatives and supporters, to an away match in Chile crashed in the Andes with 45 people on board. Truly, we were pushing the limits of our fear. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Eduardo, the group of survivors quickly formed a community, sharing tasks, rotating sleeping positions so everyone would get a chance at a more comfortable spot in the wrecked plane. After numerous days spent searching for survivors, the rescue team was forced to end the search. During the days following the crash, they divided this into small amounts to make their meager supply last as long as possible. The ordeal "taught me that we set our own limits", he said. [12][37] The survivors received public backlash initially, but after they explained the pact the survivors had made to sacrifice their flesh if they died to help the others survive, the outcry diminished and the families were more understanding. He flew south from Mendoza towards Malarge radiobeacon at flight level 180 (FL180, 18,000 feet (5,500m)). [1], The book was a critical success. That "one of us" was Parrado, along with his friend Roberto Canessa, who somehow found the strength to climb out of the mountains nearly two months later. The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. And nearly four and a half decades on, 16 of their number have lived to see Uruguay carry the spirit of the Andes survivors onto the world rugby stage. Canessa, who had become a doctor, and other survivors raised funds to pay for a hip replacement operation. None of the passengers with compound fractures survived. The Fairchild turboprop was grounded in the middle of the Cordillera Occidental, a poorly mapped range almost 100 miles wide and home to Aconcagua, at 22,834 feet the . He also described the book as an important one: Cowardice, selfishness, whatever: their essential heroism can weather Read's objectivity. [2] The search area included their location and a few aircraft flew near the crash site. Parrado disagreed and they argued without reaching a decision. We have been walking for 10 days. The survivors who had found the rear of the fuselage came up with an idea to use insulation from the rear of the fuselage, copper wire, and waterproof fabric that covered the air conditioning of the plane to fashion a sleeping bag.[18][17]. Seventeen more would perish from their injuries and an avalanche, according to reports. They were running out of food, so Vizintn agreed to return to the crash site leaving his remaining portions to the other two. As some of the people die, the survivors are forced to make a terrible decision between starvation and cannibalism. Rescue they felt would come. As you can imagine, it has been the most awful, terrible days of my life. The news of the missing flight reached Uruguayan media about 6:00p.m. that evening. Nando Parrado described in his book, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, how they came up with the idea of making a sleeping bag: The second challenge would be to protect ourselves from exposure, especially after sundown. We're not going to do nothing wrong. It was later made into a Hollywood movie in 1993. Colonel Julio Csar Ferradas was an experienced Air Force pilot who had a total of 5,117 flying hours. [26] Alfredo Delgado spoke for the survivors. Parrado later said, "It was soft and greasy, streaked with blood and bits of wet gristle. He was in the ninth row of seats. Parrado was one of 45 rugby players, family, friends and crew making a routine flight across the Andes from Uruguay to Chile. On the second day, Canessa thought he saw a road to the east, and tried to persuade Parrado to head in that direction. Of course, the idea of eating human flesh was terrible, repugnant, said Ramon Sabella, 70, who is among the passengers of the Fairchild FH-2270 who survived 72 days in the Andes, the Sunday Times of London reported. No tenemos comida. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Eduardo Strauch's book, written with Uruguayan author Mireya Soriano, is called "Out Of The Silence.". Or was this the only sane thing to do? In bad weather their plane clipped the top of a mountain in Argentina. At times I was tempted to fictionalize certain parts of the story because this might have added to their dramatic impact but in the end I decided that the bare facts were sufficient to sustain the narrativewhen I returned in October 1973 to show them the manuscript of this book, some of them were disappointed by my presentation of their story. Please, we cannot even walk. [17] Since the plane crash, Canessa had lost almost half of his body weight, about 44 kilograms (97lb). Plane crash victim recounts the desperation that led him to eat friends for survival . [17] The survivors heard on the transistor radio that the Uruguayan Air Force had resumed searching for them. A valley at the base of the mountain they stood on wound its way towards the peaks. Several members of a Uruguayan rugby team who survived that disaster - which came to known as the 'Miracle of the Andes' - met up on the 40th anniversary of the crash, in 2012, to play a . Members of a college rugby team and their relatives on Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 were travelling from Uruguay's capital Montevideo to Santiago, Chile, for a rugby game. Marcelo Perez, captain of the rugby team, assumed leadership.[15][17]. Crashed at 3:34p.m. They concluded that the Uruguayans should never have made it. When he had boarded the ill-fated Uruguay Air Force plane for Chile, Harley weighed 84 kilograms. And the snow was all over the kerosene of the engines of the plane. But it didn't. Lagurara failed to notice that instrument readings indicated he was still 6070km (3743mi) from Curic. But could we do it? [3], As the aircraft descended, severe turbulence tossed the aircraft up and down. This story has been shared 139,641 times. After the initial shock of their plane crashing into the Andes mountains on that fateful Friday the 13th of October 1972, Harley and 31 other survivors found themselves in the pitch dark in minus . We have just some chocolates and biscuits for 29 people, so we start getting very weak immediately. Alongside Canessa he defied death and impossible odds, trekking and climbing "mountains higher than any in Europe", with little strength and no equipment for 10 days and 80 miles. Twenty-nine people initially survived that crash, and their story of struggle in the mountains became the subject of books and movies, most famously "Alive." Four planes searched that afternoon until dark. To get there, the plane would have to fly over the snow-capped peaks of the Andes Mountains. Both of Arturo Nogueira's legs were broken in several places. They had climbed a mountain on the border of Argentina and Chile, meaning the trekkers were still tens of kilometres from the green valleys of Chile. 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. [32][26], When the news broke out that people had survived the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, the story of the passengers' survival after 72 days drew international attention. Instead of climbing the ridge to the west which was somewhat lower than the peak, they climbed straight up the steep mountain. STRAUCH: Absolutely devastating - so we felt abandoned, and we felt so angry with everybody, with - even with our families, with the world, with God, with nature, with everything. Condemned to die without any hope we transported the rugby feeling to the cold fuselage at 12,000ft.". They also found the aircraft's two-way radio. But the hard part was not over for Eduardo Strauch. 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. We have a very small space. And there were already signs that the flight wouldn't be easy. They've called off the search.' Today, the 16 survivors are a close-knit group who also meet each year on December 22, the day the rescue began, for a barbecue of beef steaks and pork sausages. STRAUCH: Yeah. [26], On the third morning of the trek, Canessa stayed at their camp. The crew were dead and the radio didn't have any batteries. [15] They saw three aircraft fly overhead, but were unable to attract their attention, and none of the aircraft crews spotted the white fuselage against the snow. The news of their miraculous survival drew world-wide headlines that grew into a media circus. Estamos dbiles. Once he held those items in his hands, he felt himself transported back to the mountains. Vizintn and Parrado rejoined Canessa where they had slept the night before. The plane crashed into the Andes mountains on Friday 13 October 1972. But this story has endured, and at the time, in the early 70s, became controversial, because of what happened next. They now used their training to help the injured passengers. [35] On 23 December, news reports of cannibalism were published worldwide, except in Uruguay. Contact would have killed them all, but by a miracle they missed the obstacles and more than half of those onboard "barely had a scratch on them". One of the propellers sliced through the fuselage as the wing it was attached to was severed. The arrieros could not imagine that anyone could still be alive. The bodies of our friends and team-mates, preserved outside in the snow and ice, contained vital, life-giving protein that could help us survive. With Hugo Stiglitz, Norma Lazareno, Luz Mara Aguilar, Fernando Larraaga. He decided his story was so important that he had to share it beyond just his family and friends. I get used to. Survivors of a plane crash were forced to eat their dead friends in a harrowing story that sounds too unbelievable to be true. With the warmth of three bodies trapped by the insulating cloth, we might be able to weather the coldest nights. Parrado was determined to hike out or die trying. To get there, they needed to fly a small plane over the rugged Andes mountains. The food ran out after a week, and the group tried to eat parts of the airplane, such as the cotton inside the seats and leather. "I came back to life after having died," said Parrado, whose mother and sister died in the Andes. [27][28] seeking help. He set the example by swallowing the first matchstick-sized strip of frozen flesh. There was no natural vegetation and there were no animals on either the glacier or nearby snow-covered mountain. [15], Before the avalanche, a few of the survivors became insistent that their only way of survival would be to climb over the mountains and search for help. And you didn't flinch from describing this in the book. At Canessa's urging, they waited nearly seven days to allow for higher temperatures. Parrado finally persuaded Canessa to set out, and joined by Vizintn, the three men took to the mountain on 12 December. Keith Mano of The New York Times Book Review gave the book a "rave" review, stating that "Read's style is savage: unliterary, undecorated as a prosecutor's brief." Consequently, the survivors had to sustain life with rations found in the wreckage after the plane had crashed. Survivor Roberto Canessa described the decision to eat the pilots and their dead friends and family members: Our common goal was to survive but what we lacked was food. [49] Sergio Cataln died on 11 February 2020[50] at the age of 91. We've received your submission. Had we turned into brute savages? The rations did not last long, and in order to stay alive it became necessary for the survivors to eat the bodies of the dead. The passengers decided that a few members would seek help. They were treated for a variety of conditions, including altitude sickness, dehydration, frostbite, broken bones, scurvy, and malnutrition. It was hard to put in your mouth, recalled Sabella, a successful businessman. The wreck was located at an elevation of 3,570 metres (11,710ft) in the remote Andes of far western Argentina, just east of the border with Chile. After numerous days spent searching for survivors, the rescue team was forced to end the search. We have to melt snow. And when they crossed with our story, it changed their thoughts. [24][25] With considerable difficulty, on the morning of 31 October, they dug a tunnel from the cockpit to the surface, only to encounter a furious blizzard that left them no choice but to stay inside the fuselage. One of the men across the river saw Parrado and Canessa and shouted back, "Tomorrow!" By anyone, in fact, whose business it is to prepare men for adversity. [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. We had long since run out of the meagre pickings we'd found on the plane, and there was no vegetation or animal life to be found. We knew the answer, but it was too terrible to contemplate. - those first few days. [17], The Chilean Air Search and Rescue Service (SARS) was notified within the hour that the flight was missing. Alive tells the story of an Uruguayan rugby team (who were alumni of Stella Maris College), and their friends and family who were involved in the airplane crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. During the first night, five more people died: co-pilot Lagurara, Francisco Abal, Graziela Mariani, Felipe Maquirriain, and Julio Martinez-Lamas. The snow had not melted at this time in the southern hemisphere spring; they hoped to find the bodies in December, when the snow melted in the summer. The story was told in 1993 film Alive. The climb was very slow; the survivors at the fuselage watched them climb for three days. In a sense, our friends were some of the first organ donors in the world they helped to nourish us and kept us alive., The group made their decision after consuming the food they had on the plane, which included eight chocolate bars, a tin of mussels, three small jars of jam, some almonds and dates and several bottles of wine. During part of the climb, they sank up to their hips in the snow, which had been softened by the summer sun. Inside and nearby, they found luggage containing a box of chocolates, three meat patties, a bottle of rum, cigarettes, extra clothes, comic books, and a little medicine. He wore four pairs of socks wrapped in a plastic shopping bag. After several days of trying to make the radio work, they gave up and returned to the fuselage with the knowledge that they would have to climb out of the mountains if they were to have any hope of being rescued. The inexperienced co-pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Dante Hctor Lagurara, was at the controls when the accident occurred. Family members were not allowed to attend. Surrounded by corpses frozen in the snow the group made the decision to eat from the bodies to stay alive. In those intervening months 13 more of the 29 who made that pact died on the mountain, five from their injuries and eight more in a catastrophic avalanche that buried the stricken fuselage that had become their refuge. Given the cloud cover, the pilots were flying under instrument meteorological conditions at an altitude of 18,000 feet (5,500m) (FL180), and could not visually confirm their location.
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