ANDEAN TRAGEDY: A SURVIVAL STORY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The tragedy of the Andes was a plane crash that occurred on October 13, 1972 in the Argentine part of the Andes mountain range. The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 flight was carrying 45 people belonging to the Uruguayan rugby team Old Christians, from the Stella Maris private school. The journey was from Montevideo to Santiago de Chile, but due to a copilot failure, the plane crashed in the middle of the mountains.

The survivors had to spend 72 days isolated in the middle of a glacier, in extremely precarious living conditions. To achieve this, they resorted to some extreme measures, such as cannibalism, which aroused very different reactions among the international press.

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Of all the passengers on the flight, 16 were rescued more than two months after the accident. The story of how they managed to save themselves, while controversial, has inspired many people. Even today a three-day pilgrimage to the impact site has become popular.

History

The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 flight was not on a regular route on October 12, 1972. The plane had been chartered especially to transport the Old Christians amateur rugby team from Uruguay to Chile, where a match against local players would be played.

In addition to the team members, other passengers (mainly friends of the team) and several members of the crew were also on the plane. In total, 45 people took off from Montevideo in a plane of the Uruguayan armed forces, piloted by Colonel Julio César Ferradas, who had more than 5,000 flight hours.

As co-pilot, the flight had Lieutenant Colonel Dante Héctor Lagurara, who did not have much experience piloting. In addition, the journey was complicated when due to a storm that broke out over the Andes, the team had to stop for the night in Mendoza, Argentina.

Although there is a direct route from Mendoza to Santiago, it requires the planes to reach a height of approximately 8,000 meters, very close to the limit of the device used for the flight, which is 8,500 meters. Due to the risks inherent in this route, the pilot decided to divert using the A7 air route.

The journey along this route was much longer and during the following day the weather also made the flight very difficult. During most of it, the clouds practically destroyed the visibility of the device.

Causes of the accident

The main pilot had flown over the Andes 29 times previously. However, this time he was training the co-pilot, so he was at the controls of the device. Due to the weather conditions, the journey was much more difficult.

Thus, the device was flying at an altitude of 5,500 meters using nothing more than the information received from the measurement instruments that the plane included. Due to the clouds, they could not visually confirm its location.

Therefore, the copilot had to rely on the information he received by radio. Due to a calculation error, at a certain point he believed that he had already crossed the Andes and that he was over Santiago de Chile.

The city controllers, with whom he was communicating, gave him permission to descend, not knowing that he was still over the mountains. Thus, Lagurara tried to go down to 3,500 meters high. All this, without being able to see anything.

Crash against the mountain

At one point, the turbulence of the descent caused the plane to descend several hundred meters suddenly. At that moment, both the passengers and the pilots saw that they were about to collide with the side of a mountain. Lagurara tried to get around the obstacle, but it was too late.

For several minutes, the copilot kept the plane vertical and with the engines at full power, trying to rise above the peak of the mountain. In fact, according to witnesses at the scene, for a few moments it seemed that he was going to succeed. However, eventually the aircraft crashed against the mountain on several occasions.

In the first hit, the right wing was ripped off by its roots. In addition, part of the fuselage also came off, leaving a hole in the rear of the aircraft. At this moment, three of the passengers and two of the crew fell from the plane, rushing to their deaths.

Finally, the other wing was also ripped off along with part of the cabin, killing two other passengers. The wreckage of the plane raced down the side of the mountain until the plane stopped until it collided with a snow bank. In this last impact, the pilot Julio César Ferradas also died.

The fuselage of the plane came to rest on a glacier 3,570 meters high, which was later dubbed the "Valley of Tears." The point is located halfway between the border of Chile and Argentina, next to the Tinguiririca Volcano and the 4,650-meter Cerro Seler, which was named by one of the passengers after his rescue.

First day after the accident

Of the 45 people on the plane, 33 of them survived the initial crash, although several did so in a very bad condition. The copilot, for example, was trapped in the wreckage of the cabin without the possibility of getting out, so he asked one of the passengers to find his pistol and shoot him. However, the man did not.

Two of the rugby players were medical students - Roberto Canessa among them - and they worked quickly to see the severity of the others' injuries and help them in whatever way they could. Among those who survived, one of the most seriously injured was Nando Parrado, who had a breach in his head and was unconscious for three days.

After the first night, only 28 of the passengers remained alive.

Survival in extreme conditions

Of the 28 initial survivors, two of them remained in a coma: Nando Parrado and his sister Susana. The rest of them tried to improvise a shelter with what was left of the plane's fuselage, covering the gaps that had been left after the accident with seats, snow and luggage.

When they finished their work, the 28 had created a space of approximately 30 square feet in which they huddled together to survive. One of the passengers, Fito Strauch, became the leader of the group and thanks to him, the conditions of the others improved slightly.

For example, Strauch devised a way to get liquid water from ice by using a sheet of metal to concentrate the sun's heat. He also made rudimentary sunglasses to protect sight from snow blindness, and a kind of waterproof shoes for walking on the glacier.

When Nando Parrado awoke from his coma, after three days, he tried to wake up his sister as well, but was unsuccessful and died shortly after. Thus, the group of survivors was reduced to 27. Soon, they realized that their biggest problem was going to be the lack of food.

Despite rationing what little they had, within a week they had run out of supplies. In addition, they did not have medical equipment, warm clothing, or a way to communicate with the outside world, although they did find a small radio that allowed them to find out the status of their search.

During the first 8 days after the accident, the governments of Argentina and Uruguay tried to find them. However, despite the fact that several planes passed over where they were, they could not locate them because the fuselage of the plane was white and was camouflaged with the snow.

After the eighth day, one of the passengers heard on the radio that they had been left for dead and that they were no longer going to try to find them. At that moment, they realized that they were alone.

In addition, an avalanche killed several more passengers, and increased the sense of despair of those who survived it. Thus, their situation was increasingly precarious.

Choosing cannibalism to survive

Despite going all they could without food, the survivors soon realized that they would die quickly if they did not find food. In the middle of a glacier, more than 3,000 meters high, there was nothing they could hunt or gather, so their only option was to eat the bodies of their dead companions.

Despite it being the only possible course of action, they all initially refused to do so. Most of them were Catholic, and they feared that just for thinking of doing something like that God would punish them. Even according to several of them later, many prayed for guidance or some other way out.

Thus, before resigning themselves to cannibalism, they tried everything they could think of. They tried to eat the seat padding, which was made of cotton, or the leather from suitcases and shoes, but doing so made their health worse.

Therefore, after several days, little by little most of the survivors made the decision to feed on the meat of their companions. Only one of them chose not to and died shortly after, weighing just 25 kilos.

First expedition outside the plane

As the days passed, the survivors realized that they would have to do something for themselves if they wanted to get out of the situation they were in alive. No one was going to rescue them, so they would have to risk going for help.

Due to the pilot's last words before he died, they believed that they were a short distance east of an inhabited area of ​​Chile. However, they were actually almost 80 kilometers away from the nearest town.

Still, to the west (which is where they thought they had to go) was a mountain peak, so the three volunteers decided to head east to explore. There, less than a day away, they found the tail of the plane. Inside it they found supplies and a broken radio, which they tried to repair without success.

The next day they set out again to continue their march, but on the second night they spent outside, they were about to freeze to death. During the first one they only managed to survive because they had slept inside the tail of the plane.

They soon realized that if they wanted to get anywhere, they had to find a way to cope with the very low temperatures at night. Brainstorming, they came up with making a kind of portable shelter with the insulation of the plane, and thanks to their teamwork, they had it finished in a few days.

Final expedition

Once the portable shelter was completed, three of the surviving passengers decided to go on an expedition west. His original idea was to climb to the top of the mountain; they thought that on the other side they would find the plains of Uruguay.

However, once they managed to reach the highest part of the peak, they realized that the path was going to take them much longer than they expected. So one of the survivors (who was in not very good health) returned with those who were waiting on the plane.

The two men who continued looking for help (Parrado and Canessa) kept walking for ten days, until they managed to descend into a small valley. On their way they ran out of food, but some signs of human life such as farms or pastures allowed them to maintain hope.

At the end of the tenth day, they met two muleteers, but they could not hear what they were saying because they were on the other side of a river that made a lot of noise. However, the next day the two men returned and were finally able to communicate with the survivors.

The two muleteers sought help in the nearest town, and finally a helicopter managed to reach the glacier where the other survivors were waiting. Thus, between December 22 and 23 (72 days after the accident) the last of the plane's passengers was rescued.

When they returned home, the survivors had to face public opinion and their own problems, due to their decision to eat human flesh. However, the passengers on the flight were finally able to rebuild their lives. To this day, they still meet once a year to reminisce about the experience and maintain their friendship.

References

1. "The untold story of the tragedy of the Andes and a nickname:" El 17 "in: Infobae. Retrieved on: July 23, 2018 from Infobae: infobae.com.
2. "Eating the bodies - to live until rescued - was more difficult for some than others: the shocking testimony of a survivor of the" Miracle of the Andes "on: BBC. Retrieved on: July 23, 2018 from BBC: bbc.com.
3. "44 years after the tragedy in the Andes, what happened to the 16 survivors?" in: Notimerica. Retrieved on: July 23, 2018 from Notimerica: notimerica.com.
4. "The miracle of Los Andes" in: Panorama. Retrieved on: July 23, 2018 from Panorama: panorama.com.ve.
5. "Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: July 23, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.