Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
The Tragedy of the Andes stretched humanity to its limits
In modern society we are rarely exposed to extreme circumstances; be it starvation, extreme temperatures, or isolation with little hope of rescue.
The survivors of the October 1972 plane crash in the Andes had to withstand all these conditions for 72 days, almost 2,5 months.
They were only able to get through it by cannibalizing the dead, before ultimately taking their rescue into their own hands.
Their story is not just one of desperate measures, but also one of miraculous resilience in the face of severe hardships.
The Flight
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was a chartered flight, leaving from Montevideo in Uruguay on October 12, 1972. The destination was Santiago, Chile.
The plane carried a combined total of 45 people; 40 passengers and five crew members.
Among the passengers were 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby team, with friends and family who had joined to support them in their upcoming match in Santiago. It was their club president who had arranged the flight for this purpose.
Due to bad weather, the plane made a stop for the night in Mendoza, Argentina, before pressing on to Santiago on October 13.
Weather conditions were still very cloudy as they ascended over the Andes mountains, which played a big role in the tragedy that would unfold.
The Crash
The plane was controlled by the co-pilot at the time of the crash. His inexperience, combined with the cloudy weather, led to a severe miscalculation of their location.
The co-pilot started the descent far too early and, too late in realizing his mistake, he did not regain sufficient altitude. The plane flew into a mountain ridge, separating the wings and tail.
At this point, five people in the rear section of the plane lost their lives. Two more fell out, one dying from the fall and another from asphyxiation in the snow.
The remainder of the fuselage slid down further and, in its final resting place, would house the survivors for the months to come.
In this front section of the plane, a handful of people died immediately as well, or soon after the crash as a result.
Among the early deaths were both the pilot and co-pilot, who tragically lived one more day trapped in the cockpit. Critically injured, his plea to another passenger to be shot with his own pistol was refused.
The First Week
The immediate shock was, of course, immense. Besides the traumatic experience of the crash itself, there was grief over the loss of life that had already occurred. Most of the passengers had some connection to one another, be it as teammates or family.
As the seats had broken loose during the crash, the passengers had been pressed forward and several had sustained broken bones. Those with compound fractures would pass away within days.
Clearing the seats and other debris, the wreckage was turned into a shelter of shorts. Luggage was checked for anything useful, including food and warm clothing. While the snow provided ample water, food would soon run out entirely.
On the first night in the shelter, the inhabitants would find out how bitter cold it gets when the sun sets on the Andes. Fighting off temperatures as low as −30 °C, they used luggage to block the opening of the wreckage where the tail part had come off.
In the meantime rescue missions were underway, aircraft looking for the crash site on a daily basis. They were unable to see the white wreckage against the snow, and the survivors, well aware of the overflying rescuers, failed to get their attention.
After eight days, the authorities thought it impossible to find any survivors, and further search and rescue missions were called off. They would wait until December, to retrieve the bodies once the snow had melted.
The survivors learned of this fact on the radio and realized how desperate their situation had become.
A Desperate Decision
There was no way they would last much longer with the resources they had, food being the primary bottleneck. The extreme circumstances, severe cold combined with high altitude, increased the amount of calories their bodies needed.
The solution was obvious but horrible; the bodies of their comrades and relatives were preserved in the snow outside the plane fuselage. As all survivors were of the Roman Catholic faith, they had strong religious objections to this idea.
They eventually went about it by cutting small strips of meat using broken glass from the windshield. The pieces were dried in the sun and generally kept anonymous to people other than those who did the preparation.
At a later stage, the survivors would also eat organs, and leave only skeletal remains of the fallen. Should they perish, some survivors gave the others explicit permission to eat them.
All those who survived the ordeal partook in eating human flesh, and their decision should be viewed with compassion.
Avalanche
After more than two weeks on the mountain, disaster struck again.
The shelter was hit by an avalanche at night, surprising the survivors and claiming the lives of a further eight people through suffocation under the snow. Trapped inside for three days as a blizzard raged on, the survivors began eating the meat of the newly deceased.
This must have been another traumatic experience, as they were proven vulnerable even inside the makeshift shelter, and the source of their nourishment was less anonymous than it had been to most until then.
Expeditions
Some survivors went on small expeditions, which were incredibly hard for several reasons.
They did not have an accurate idea of where they were, they were already weakened by malnourishment and the cold, and had no adequate gear.
At their altitude, they were also dealing with altitude sickness and the risk of snow blindness, against which they fashioned some “sunglasses” made from materials they found.
During one of their excursions, they found the tail part of the wreckage and made an unsuccessful attempt to get the radio working. What it did net them were materials and further experience in going out into the environment.
A Miracle
The Tragedy of the Andes is sometimes referred to as The Miracle of the Andes, as 16 people made it through against all odds.
After roughly two months on the mountain, three of the survivors decided they would attempt to climb the surrounding mountains and get to civilization. This, of course, came at the immense risk that they would die trying.
Were they to cover a meaningful distance, the main issue to solve was how to survive the extremely cold nights outside of the wreckage. They combined materials from the front and tail sections of the plane to create a makeshift sleeping bag.
Based on dying statements from the co-pilot, they thought the closest help would be to the west. In reality, there was an abandoned summer resort 21 kilometres east of their location.
Misjudging where they were, the trio prepared rations of meat for around three days and built their strength for the journey.
As those staying behind looked on, they started climbing. The sleeping bag kept them alive, but on the third morning, they found themselves on a peak surrounded by mountains. They realized that they had much further to go than they initially thought.
To make the rations last longer for the other two, one of them used a makeshift sleigh to get back down to the shelter.
The duo remaining on the expedition desperately pressed on for another week, before making it to Chile. They had traveled 61 kilometres.
As the snow had disappeared around them, they reached a river and saw three men on the other side. They couldn’t hear each other over the crashing water, so one of the men came back the next day with a rather ingenious idea.
He attached paper and a pencil to a rock, before throwing it over the river. In this way, the two crash survivors were able to communicate their situation and request help for the remaining 14 people trapped on the mountain.
Aftermath
Two helicopters were sent to pick up the survivors at the plane wreckage. They could only take half in one go and had to come back the next day for the rest.
As the survivors were recuperating, rumors started circulating that they had killed people to eat them. A newspaper publication in late December led to further controversy, as a picture of the crash site depicted the dismembered legs of a corpse.
The survivors conducted a press conference, explaining that they had made a pact between themselves to sacrifice their bodies in case they died, so that others might live.
In this way, they could reconcile their actions with the Catholic faith, comparing it to the way Jesus had shared his body and blood with his disciples during the Last Supper. Public outcry died down.
At the time of the rescue, the remains of the dead were left behind, as they were on Argentine soil and the authorities had to decide how to handle the recovery.
It was ultimately decided that the remains would be buried together at a common grave near the crash site. When all was said and done, there were 13 whole bodies and 15 picked clean of their flesh.
Legacy
The Tragedy (and Miracle) of the Andes has been dramatized in books, movies, and plays. There is a museum you can visit in Chile, and the survivors endorsed or produced documentaries and memoirs.
The recent Spanish film La sociedad de la nieve is based on a book featuring accounts from all 16 survivors and is a favorite for the international category at the upcoming Academy Awards. If the story interests you, you might want to look it up on Netflix.
There is however no way to truly understand the ordeal these people went through. Having to survive in extreme cold by eating the dead, is just not something we can easily imagine.
The two who took matters into their own hands by walking and climbing the Andes for 10 days without gear, showcased miraculous willpower.
The fact that human beings found themselves in such a dire situation and came out alive, makes it a story worth remembering in all its discomforting and wonderful aspects.