Andes flight disaster

On 13 October 1972 an Uruguayan Air Force twin turboprop Fairchild FH-227D was flying over the Andes carrying the Stella Maris (Christian Brothers) school's Old Christians rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay to play a match in Santiago, Chile. Following a navigation error, the plane started to descend whilst still over the mountains and crashed near the border between Chile and Argentina. The plane clipped a mountain peak at 4200 m, ripping off the left wing and breaking away the tail section. The fuselage crash-landed on a steep mountain slope and continued to slide down the mountain before coming to a stop in a snow bank.

Of the 45 people on the plane, 27 survived the immediate events of the crash, but faced a significant survival challenge in the high, freezing mountain environment. The group were dismayed to hear on the radio that the rescue search had been called off, but since many had injuries from the crash, as well lack of equipment(such as sunglasses, clothing and footwears suitable for environment and foods) they had little option other than to stay where they were.

Of course they tried many excursions in many directions in order to find way to exit from Andes and ask for rescue. Those excursions were carried out by two or three most healthy and strong members of survivors in time. They found the lost tail section of plane and tried to contact the outside using radio found in the tail section.

The group survived for 72 days, partly by taking the decision to eat their dead comrades, although a further third were to die of their injuries, exposure or getting caught in avalanches.

Eventually on the 62nd day three of the men, Nando Parrado, Roberto Canessa, and Antonio Vizintin, decided that the only option was to attempt to climb out of the mountains to find help. It took them a further ten days to reach civilisation and raise the alarm. They finally encountered a man with a horse, who helped to take them to a telephone.

On 22 December half of the remaining 16 survivors were rescued from the crash site by two helicopters from the Chilean Air Force, although eight had to be left to be rescued the following day.

See Also

• Cannibalism

The events of the crash and its survival are described in several books, including

• Clay Blair Jr., Survive!, (1973) New York: Berkley Publishing
• Piers Paul Read, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, (1974) ISBN 1885283083

There are also two films of the story

• Supervivientes de los Andes (1976) made for Mexican TV
• Alive: The Miracle of the Andes (1993), the better known Hollywood production.

External links

• Alive the Andes Survivors