Members of the "Old Christians" rugby team stand near thefuselage of their Uruguayan Air Force F-227 plane twomonths after it crashedwhileferryingthem to a matchin Chile. But could we do it? He began to climb, until the plane was nearly vertical and it began to stall and shake. The passengers removed the broken seats and other debris from the aircraft and fashioned a crude shelter. [17], It was still bitterly cold, but the sleeping bag allowed them to live through the nights. When the tail-cone was detached, it took with it the rear portion of the fuselage, including two rows of seats in the rear section of the passenger cabin, the galley, baggage hold, vertical stabilizer, and horizontal stabilizers, leaving a gaping hole in the rear of the fuselage. 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. Its my revenge on death. 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). When we got back to Uruguay one of the things I wanted to do was visit the parents of the ones that did not make it out. The flesh had protein and fat, which we needed, like cow meat. The group decided to camp that night inside the tail section. To try to keep out some of the cold, they used luggage, seats, and snow to close off the open end of the fuselage. They followed the river and reached the snowline. [17], The Chilean Air Search and Rescue Service (SARS) was notified within the hour that the flight was missing. And there were already signs that the flight wouldn't be easy. In 1972, a charter jet carrying a Uruguayan rugby team across the Andes mountains crashed, eventually killing 29 of the 45 people on board. I didnt look at the mountain. '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. Dont be seduced by your own ego and think youre better than other people, because thats the beginning of being unsuccessful. [20], The group survived by collectively deciding to eat flesh from the bodies of their dead comrades. In addition, several survivors wrote books about the ordeal. Where are we? In the plane there are still 14 injured people. I think we survived because we were a team and because we managed to walk out of the mountains. 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. [17][2], Even with this strict rationing, their food stock dwindled quickly. Consequently, the survivors had to sustain life with rations found in the wreckage after the plane had crashed. First, they were able to reach the narrow valley that Parrado had seen on the top of the mountain, where they found the source of Ro San Jos, leading to Ro Portillo which meets Ro Azufre at Maitenes. The front portion of the fuselage flew straight through the air before sliding down the steep glacier at 350km/h (220mph) like a high-speed toboggan and descended about 725 metres (2,379ft). AFP | 11 October 2022 05:48. [2] Twelve men and a Chilean priest were transported to the crash site on 18 January 1973. On the summit, Parrado told Canessa, "We may be walking to our deaths, but I would rather walk to meet my death than wait for it to come to me." Early the next morning, the Chileans reappeared, and the two groups communicated by writing notes on paper that they then wrapped around a rock and threw across the water. According to Read, some rationalized the act of cannibalism as equivalent to the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. Had we turned into brute savages? One of the men across the river saw Parrado and Canessa and shouted back, "Tomorrow!" Photograph. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with him about his story of hope in his book, Out of the Silence: After. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Authorities said that during the flight the pilot. On the return trip, they were struck by a blizzard. He had broken legsbut I could walk. Personally, I believe this was a kind of experiment by a malicious hand that decided to throw onto the mountain a group of young rugby players. The herdsmen indicated that they would return the following day. During the following 72 days, the survivors suffered extreme hardships, including exposure, starvation, and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of thirteen more passengers. Parrado ate a single chocolate-covered peanut over three days. I nearly gave up when the avalanche struck us. THE survivors of a plane crash over the Andes in 1972 who were forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive have said they "got used to eating human flesh". Cundo nos van a buscar arriba? Dont wait for your plane to crash to realize how lucky you are. 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. Crashed at 3:34p.m. 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. Upon his return to the abandoned Hotel Termas with his son's remains, he was arrested for grave robbing. I thought it was sending a warning, What are you doing here? The aircraft was 80km (50mi) east of its planned route. At Planchn Pass, the aircraft still had to travel 6070km (3743mi) to reach Curic. [4] He heard the news that the search was cancelled on their 11th day on the mountain. After a lengthy discussion, the starving survivors resorted to eating corpses. But now I can be the shepherd who can make this child survive. The ones who survived were those who most felt the joy of living. [2] Club president Daniel Juan chartered a Uruguayan Air Force twin turboprop Fairchild FH-227D to fly the team over the Andes to Santiago. We melted snow to get water. Nando Parrado had a skull fracture and remained in a coma for three days. Mariette Le Roux and Gabriela Vaz. During this time, several survivors, the expeditionaries, had been surveying the area for an escape route. A storm blew fiercely, and they finally found a spot on a ledge of rock on the edge of an abyss. He requested permission from air traffic control to descend. My children went to school with the nieces and nephews of those that died, and I think this was a very good healing process. Someone cried out, Please God, help me, help me! It was the worst nightmare you can imagine. He flew south from Mendoza towards Malarge radiobeacon at flight level 180 (FL180, 18,000 feet (5,500m)). Canessa used broken glass from the aircraft windshield as a cutting tool. The news of their miraculous survival drew world-wide headlines that grew into a media circus. Rumors circulated in Montevideo immediately after the rescue that the survivors had killed some of the others for food. Furthermore, the harsh environment led many to believe that there were no survivors. Uruguayan Air Force flight 571, also called Miracle of the Andes or Spanish El Milagro de los Andes, flight of an airplane charted by a Uruguayan amateur rugby team that crashed in the Andes Mountains in Argentina on October 13, 1972, the wreckage of which was not located for more than two months. "[29] The next morning, the three men could see that the hike was going to take much longer than they had originally planned. Approximately an hour after takeoff, the pilot notified air controllers that he was flying over the pass, and shortly thereafter he radioed that he had reached Curic, Chile, some 110 miles (178 km) south of Santiago, and had turned north. Dnde estamos?English: I come from a plane that fell in the mountains. As a result, they brought only a three-day supply of meat. There was no natural vegetation and there were no animals on either the glacier or nearby snow-covered mountain. Fito Strauch devised a way to obtain water in freezing conditions by using sheet metal from under the seats and placing snow on it. The return was entirely downhill, and using an aircraft seat as a makeshift sleigh, he returned to the crash site in one hour. From there, aircraft flew west via the G-17 (UB684) airway, crossing Planchn to the Curic radiobeacon in Chile, and from there north to Santiago.[3][4]. The incident garnered international attention, especially after it was revealed that the survivors had resorted to cannibalism. But the lessons he learned on the mountain never left him. Later on, several others did the same. One of the propellers sliced through the fuselage as the wing it was attached to was severed. 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. Filmed in the Purcell Mountains in British Columbia, the film was directed by . Estamos dbiles. But then I thought, if I were killed I would feel proud that my body could be used for others to survive. Over the next few weeks six others died, and further hardship struck on October 29, when an avalanche buried the fuselage and filled part of it with snow, causing eight more deaths. [4], The Chilean Air Force provided three Bell UH-1 helicopters to assist with the rescue. What if we could clean them out? In the resulting media frenzy, the survivors revealed that they had been forced to commit cannibalism. Corrections? [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. [2] His body was found by fellow passengers on 14 December. After eight days, the search was called off, though later rescue efforts were undertaken by family members. At this time of year, we could expect daytime temperatures well above freezing, but the nights were still cold enough to kill us, and we knew now that we couldn't expect to find shelter on the open slopes. Javier Methol and his wife Liliana, the only surviving female passenger, were the last survivors to eat human flesh. They were initially so revolted by the experience that they could eat only skin, muscle and fat. On the third day, they reach Las Lgrimas glacier, where the remains of the accident are found. A survivor of the Uruguayan rugby team plane crash reflects; Editorial ALreves, S.L., Bercelona, Spain, Read, Piers Paul. One of the team members, Roy Harley, was an amateur electronics enthusiast, and they recruited his help in the endeavour. Witness accounts and evidence at the scene indicated the plane struck the mountain either two or three times. They couldn't help everyone. Six survivors were flown to safety, but bad weather delayed the eight others from being rescued until the next day. Then we smashed into the side of the mountain. Parrado disagreed and they argued without reaching a decision. Above, someof the survivorsshortly after rescuers reached them, 72 days after the crash. At sunset, while sipping cognac that they had found in the tail section, Parrado said, "Roberto, can you imagine how beautiful this would be if we were not dead men? 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. Nando Parrado found a metal pole from the luggage racks and they were able to get one of the windows from the pilot's cabin open enough to poke a hole through the snow, providing ventilation. Then, on day six, the snow stopped and I could see all this water and grass. Those. The flight time from the pass to Curic is normally 11 minutes, but only three minutes later the pilot told Santiago that they were passing Curic and turning north. Uruguayan Flight 571 was set to take a team of amateur rugby players and. Vizintn and Parrado reached the base of a near-vertical wall more than one hundred meters (300 feet) tall encased in snow and ice. By the time he was rescued, there were a mere 37 kilograms on his 1.8-meter (5.9-foot) frame.. While the planes fuselage was largely intact, it provided limited protection from the harsh elements. I know how you feel. 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