Lost and Found: Surviving Flight 571
On October 13, 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed into an unknown mountain in the Andes. The flight began the day before when plane was carrying Old Christians Club rugby union team from Montevideo, Uruguay, to play a match in Santiago, Chile.
However weather conditions forced the flight to stop overnight in Mendoza, Argentina. The flight resumed the following day heading for a low pass to cross the mountains and head into Chile. While flying through the pass the pilot radioed air controllers in Santiago that he was over Curicó, Chile, and was cleared to descend.
From there the pilots relied on dead reckoning, the usual time required to traverse the pass. What they failed to account for was the strong headwind that slowed the plane and increased the travel time. They had not flown as far as they had calculated and descended prematurely. After dipping into cloud cover the plane struck an unnamed peak, now known as Laciar de las Lágrimas or Glacier of Tears, and eventually crashed in the Argentine municipality of Malargüe.
Of the forty-five people on board, twelve died in the initial collision or shortly thereafter. Five more died the by the next morning and another on the eighth day. The remaining survivors, many of whom were injured, had few rations and no way of heating themselves in the hostile environment 3,600 metres above sea level.
A search for the crash site was called off after eight days. The news reached the survivors who had a small transistor radio leaving them in despair.
In the days following the crash, it became apparent to the survivors that their rations were not going to enable them to survive. Collectively they decided to consume the flesh of bodies of their deceased comrades, many were friends and classmates.
To make matters worse an avalanche covered the shelter in the wreckage, in which eight survivors were resting. Trapped inside the fuselage for three days, these eight also died. The remaining sixteen survivors carried on with an earlier plan to climb over the mountains for help.
With the aid of an improvised sleeping bag, two of the survivors who Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa made it over the westerly mountain and into a valley where they came across Chilean horsemen. One of them, Sergio Catalán, rode his horse many hours to find help. Finally word reached army command in Santiago and two rescue helicopters with the help of Parrado as guide were dispatched to rescue the survivors.
Eventually all remaining survivors were rescued. Their story made sensational headlines after photos were leaked to the press. Since then two books, two films and an official website have been created about the ordeal.
