Paez shouted angrily at Nicolich. The 28 people crammed themselves into the broken fuselage in a space about 2.5 by 3 metres (8ft 2in 9ft 10in). The survivors lacked medical supplies, cold-weather clothing and equipment or food, and only had three pairs of sunglasses among them to help prevent snow blindness. Parrado later said, "It was soft and greasy, streaked with blood and bits of wet gristle. 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. [34], Under normal circumstances, the search and rescue team would have brought back the remains of the dead for burial. 13 bodies were untouched, while another 15 were mostly skeletal. Lagurara failed to notice that instrument readings indicated he was still 6070km (3743mi) from Curic. Photograph: Luis Andres Henao/AP. But Nando Parrado's story is so extraordinary, so unlikely, that 43 years later it still feels like a miraculous coming together of numerous miracles all at once. Along with the 40 on board, there were five crew on the chartered flight on October 13, 1972 Friday the 13th. They now used their training to help the injured passengers. [22][23], Seventeen days after the crash, near midnight on 29 October, an avalanche struck the aircraft containing the survivors as they slept. "[29] The next morning, the three men could see that the hike was going to take much longer than they had originally planned. Harley lay down to die, but Parrado would not let him stop and took him back to the fuselage. 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. Numa Turcatti and Antonio Vizintin were chosen to accompany Canessa and Parrado; however, Turcatti's leg was stepped on and the bruise had become septic, so he was unable to join the expedition. On that morning conditions over the Andes had not improved but changes were expected by the early afternoon. Eduardo Strauch joins me now from Montevideo in Uruguay. Seventeen. [16], Canessa and Gustavo Zerbino, both medical students, acted quickly to assess the severity of people's wounds and treat those they could help most. This decision was not taken lightly, as most of the dead were classmates, close friends, or relatives. Where are we? Canessa said it was the worst night of his life. [17] Based on the aircraft's altimeter, they thought they were at 7,000 feet (2,100m), when they were actually at about 11,800 feet (3,597m). We wondered whether we were going mad even to contemplate such a thing. 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." In 2007, Chilean arriero Sergio Cataln was interviewed on Chilean television during which he revealed that he had leg (hip) arthrosis. Others had open fractures to the legs and without treatment none of that group survived the next two and a half months in the frozen wilderness. The author comments on this process in the "Acknowledgments" section: I was given a free hand in writing this book by both the publisher and the sixteen survivors. He also described the book as an important one: Cowardice, selfishness, whatever: their essential heroism can weather Read's objectivity. The passengers decided that a few members would seek help. Updated on 13/10/2022 14:00A day like today, 50 years ago, happened "You and I are friends, Nando. The pilot waited and took off at 2:18p.m. on Friday 13 October from Mendoza. We have been through so much. Catalan, who rode to the nearest town to alert rescuers, returned to meet the survivors on Saturday in a hat and poncho. 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. The boys, from Uruguay's coast had never seen snow before. [27][28] seeking help. But this story has endured, and at the time, in the early 70s, became controversial, because of what happened next. We tried to eat strips of leather torn from pieces of luggage, though we knew that the chemicals they'd been treated with would do us more harm than good. I gagged hard when I placed it in my mouth. [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. One helicopter remained behind in reserve. Cundo nos van a buscar arriba? "[11], Roberto Canessa later said that he thought the pilot turned north too soon, and began the descent to Santiago while the aircraft was still high in the Andes. 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. It was Friday the 13th of October in 1972 when an Uruguayan aircraft carrying the Old Christians rugby team and their friends and family went down in the mountains in Argentina, near the border . "The 29 guys that were still alive, abandoned, no food, no rescue, nothing what do you do?" Jorge Zerbino, nephew of one of the survivors, is in the Uruguay squad. Authorities flew over the crash site several times during the following days, searching for the aircraft, but could not see the white fuselage against the snow. On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 went down in the Andes along the Argentine-Chilean border. "It's something that very few people experience." For three days, the remaining survivors were trapped in the extremely cramped space within the buried fuselage with about 1 metre (3ft 3in) headroom, together with the corpses of those who had died in the avalanche. They built a fire and stayed up late reading comic books. 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. A storm blew fiercely, and they finally found a spot on a ledge of rock on the edge of an abyss. And the snow was all over the kerosene of the engines of the plane. We're not going to do nothing wrong. As he began to descend, the aircraft struck a mountain, shearing off both wings and the tail section. [17] On 21 October, after searching a total of 142 hours and 30 minutes, the searchers concluded that there was no hope and terminated the search. [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. 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". It was one of the greatest survival stories in human history, perhaps THE greatest. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Eduardo Strauch survived the 1972 Andes plane crash of the Uruguayan rugby team. The last eight survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force plane crash in the Andes in South America, huddle together in the craft's fuselage on their final night before rescue on Dec. 22, 1972.. Search efforts were cancelled after eight days. 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. They hoped that the valley they were in would make a U-turn and allow them to start walking west to Chile. After just a few days, we were feeling the sensation of our own bodies consuming themselves just to remain alive. To prevent snow blindness, he improvised sunglasses using the sun visors in the pilot's cabin, wire, and a bra strap. Flight 571 Plane Crash Survivors Made Gruesome Cannibal Pact News Au Australia S Leading Site. Hace 10 das que estamos caminando. Valeta survived his fall, but stumbled down the snow-covered glacier, fell into deep snow, and was asphyxiated. [15], On 15 November, Arturo Nogueira died, and three days later, Rafael Echavarren died, both from gangrene due to their infected wounds. I am Uruguayan. pp. [3][2], The aircraft continued forward and upward another 200 meters (660ft) for a few more seconds when the left wing struck an outcropping at 4,400 meters (14,400ft), tearing off the wing. You probably know the story of the group of Uruguayan rugby players, family members, and fans whose chartered plane crashed into an unnamed 15,000-foot peak on October 13, 1972. Parrado lost more than seven stones (44kg) along the way, approaching half of his body weight. Ive done six million miles on American Airlines, he said. His mother died instantly, followed by his sister, cradled in his arms a week later. [2] He asked one of the passengers to find his pistol and shoot him, but the passenger declined. When someone cancelled at the last minute, Graziela Mariani bought the seat so she could attend her oldest daughter's wedding. Parrado was sure this was their way out of the mountains. ', Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Photo by EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP via Getty Images. Search efforts were canceled after eight days.[1]. Uruguayan Flight 571 was set to take a team of amateur rugby players and. [4], The Chilean Air Force provided three Bell UH-1 helicopters to assist with the rescue. harrowing tale of survivors of an airplane crash. And after almost 2 1/2 months, the 16 survivors were rescued. It was really amazing just to manage my mind, my thoughts. But after entering severe turbulence, the pilot made a mistake and began descending while they were still over the mountains. He decided his story was so important that he had to share it beyond just his family and friends. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaster ( Tragedia de los Andes) and the Miracle of the Andes ( Milagro de los Andes ). When are you going to come to fetch us? Because of the co-pilot's dying statement that the aircraft had passed Curic, the group believed the Chilean countryside was just a few kilometres away to the west. When Canessa reached the top and saw nothing but snow-capped mountains for kilometres around them, his first thought was, "We're dead. The remaining survivors of an Uruguayan rugby team were rescued when their plane crashed into the Andes after months of waiting. [5][6] Once across the mountains in Chile, south of Curic, the aircraft was supposed to turn north and initiate a descent into Pudahuel Airport in Santiago. Due to the altitude and weight limits, the two helicopters were able to take only half of the survivors. Can you talk a little bit about that? During the days following the crash, they divided this into small amounts to make their meager supply last as long as possible. Their story became the basis of a best-selling book and Hollywood film. Some feared eternal damnation. We have many cases of people who - they decided to commit suicide. His mother had taught him to sew when he was a boy, and with the needles and thread from the sewing kit found in his mother's cosmetic case, he began to work to speed the progress, Carlitos taught others to sew, and we all took our turns Coche [Inciarte], Gustavo [Zerbino], and Fito [Strauch] turned out to be our best and fastest tailors. [36], The survivors held a press conference on 28 December at Stella Maris College in Montevideo, where they recounted the events of the past 72 days. 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. We knew the answer, but it was too terrible to contemplate. He compared their actions to that of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, during which he gave his disciples the Eucharist. 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." They had no technical gear, no map or compass, and no climbing experience. The rescuers believed that no one could have survived the crash. We just heard on the radio. The controller in Santiago, unaware the flight was still over the Andes, authorized him to descend to 11,500 feet (3,500m) (FL115). 'Why the hell is that good news?' After ten days the group of survivors heard on a radio that the search for them had been called off. In October 1972, a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes. To try to keep out some of the cold, they used luggage, seats, and snow to close off the open end of the fuselage. 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 white plane was invisible in the snowy blanket of the mountain. The next day, more survivors ate the meat offered to them, but a few refused or could not keep it down.[2]. On Friday, October 13, in 1972, charter flight 571 took off from Montevideo, Uruguay's capital city, carrying a boisterous team of wealthy college athletes to a rugby match in Chile. Im condemned to tell this story for evermore, just like the Beatles always having to sing Yesterday. 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. Potter's 600m problem, The amazing survival story of a Uruguayan rugby team in 1972. Parrado disagreed and they argued without reaching a decision. After 10 days of trekking, they spotted Sergio Catalan, a livestock herder in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. Thinking of the suffering that must have caused our families at home made us even more determined to survive, said Sabella. The plane, traveling from Uruguay to Chile, went down over the Andes moun-tains after on October 13, 1972. It doesn't taste anything. Now let's go die together. [40] The father of one victim had received word from a survivor that his son wished to be buried at home. [2] His body was found by fellow passengers on 14 December. This year, the 50th anniversary of their ordeal was celebrated with a stamp by the Uruguayan post office, the newspaper reported. A federal judge and the local mayor intervened to obtain his release, and Echavarren later obtained legal permission to bury his son.[2].
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