On October 13, 1972, 16 of the 40 passengers on a charter flight survived a plane crash. They stayed 72 days stranded in the Andes in polar cold conditions, never giving up hope and resorting to cannibalism to survive. For the survivors, it was a nightmare, although people later called their adventure «The Miracle of the Andes».
On October 12, 1972, a Fairchild Hiller FH-227D twin-engine helicopter of the Air Force of Uruguay, with a crew of five and 40 passengers, took off from the Montevideo to the Santiago of Chile. Transferred the Old Christians Club rugby team, which was to play a friendly match in the Chilean capital, but also relatives, friends and acquaintances of the players.
During the flight, the weather deteriorated and the experienced pilot, Colonel Julio Cesar Ferrada, chose to land in the Argentine city of Mendoza, in the foothills of the Andes, where the passengers and crew spent the night. The following day, the weather conditions had not improved, but the pilot gave in to the pressure from the passengers and decided to take off for Santiago after getting the green light from the control tower.
On the way, the aircraft encountered severe turbulence, which the 40 passengers faced with smiles and without fear. Most of them were 19 or 20 years old and for many of them it was their first trip by plane.
However, over Chile the plane ran into trouble, lost altitude, hit an Andean peak, lost part of its tail and crashed in the snow. Twelve of the passengers were killed instantly, while five others succumbed to their injuries on the first night.
The 28 survivors, some of them overworked and injured, began the struggle for survival in the harsh polar conditions of the Andes. They were at an altitude of 3,600 m, without food, with limited oxygen and no news of their fate, as rescue teams had lost track of them. Their food from now on would be the corpses of their fellow passengers.
On 21 October one of the rescued died and on 29 October an avalanche finished off eight others. By 11 December three more had died.
On 12 December, two of the survivors, Nando Parado and Roberto Canesa, decided to embark on a desperate march into the unknown. After ten days of trekking, they were lucky enough to find a mountain transporter named Sergio Catalán, who took care of them and alerted the authorities, who had suspended the search. By December 23, 1972, all the other 14 survivors of the plane crash had been safely transported to Montevideo.
The Andean plane crash and the odyssey of the survivors inspired the writing of books, fiction and documentary films and even musicals.
