December 23: On This Day in World History … briefly
On the summit, Parrado told Canessa “We may be walking to our deaths, but I would rather walk to meet my death than wait for it to come to me.” Canessa agreed. “You and I are friends, Nando. We have been through so much. Now let's go die together.”
1972: 16 survivors of Andes flight disaster rescued after 73 days
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was a chartered flight that crashed on a glacier in the remote Andes in 1972. Among the 45 people on board, 28 survived the crash. Facing starvation and death, the survivors reluctantly resorted to cannibalism. After 72 days on the glacier, 16 people were rescued.
The flight, carrying 19 members of a rugby team, family, supporters, and friends originated in Montevideo, Uruguay and was headed for Santiago, Chile. While crossing the Andes, the inexperienced co-pilot who was in command mistakenly believed they had reached Curicó, Chile, despite instrument readings that indicated otherwise. He turned north and began to descend towards what he thought was Pudahuel Airport. Instead, the aircraft struck the mountain, shearing off both wings and the rear of the fuselage. The forward part of the fuselage careened down a steep slope and came to rest on a glacier. Three crew members and more than a quarter of the passengers died in the crash, and several others quickly succumbed to cold and injuries.
On the tenth day after the crash, the survivors learned from a transistor radio that the search had been called off. Faced with starvation and death, those still alive agreed that should they die, the others might consume their bodies in order to live. With no choice, the survivors ate the bodies of their dead friends. Seventeen days after the crash, 27 remained alive when an avalanche filled the rear of the broken fuselage they were using as shelter, killing eight more survivors. The survivors had little food and no source of heat in the harsh conditions.
They decided that a few of the strongest people would hike out to seek rescue. Sixty days after the crash, passengers Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, lacking mountaineering gear of any kind, climbed from the glacier at 3 570m to the 4 670m peak blocking their way west. Over 10 days they trekked about 38 miles (61km) seeking help. The first person they saw was Chilean arriero Sergio Catalán, who gave them food and then rode for ten hours to alert authorities.
Parrado and Canessa hiked for several more days. First, they were able to reach the narrow valley that Parrado had seen on the top of the mountain, where they found the source of Río San José, leading to Río Portillo which meets Río Azufre at Maitenes. They followed the river and reached the snowline. Gradually, there appeared more and more signs of human presence; first some evidence of camping, and finally on the ninth day, some cows. When they rested that evening they were very tired, and Canessa seemed unable to proceed further.
As the men gathered wood to build a fire, one of them saw three men on horseback at the other side of the river. Parrado called to them, but the noise of the river made it impossible to communicate. One of the men across the river saw Parrado and Canessa and called back “Tomorrow!” The next day, the man returned. He scribbled a note, attached it and a pencil to a rock with some string and threw the message across the river. Parrado replied:
“I come from a plane that fell in the mountains. I am Uruguayan. We have been walking for ten days. I have a wounded friend up there. In the plane there are still 14 injured people. We have to get out from here quickly and we don’t know how. We don’t have any food. We are weak. When are you going to come to fetch us? Please, we cannot even walk. Where are we?”
Sergio Catalán, a Chilean arriero (muleteer), read the note and gave them a sign that he understood. Catalán talked with the other two men, and one of them remembered that several weeks before Carlos Paez’s father had asked them if they had heard about the Andes plane crash. The arrieros could not imagine that anyone could still be alive. Catalán threw loaves of bread to the men across the river. He then rode on horseback westward for ten hours to bring help.
The story of the passengers’ survival after 72 days drew international attention. The remaining 14 survivors were rescued on December 23, 1972, more than two months after the crash. The survivors were concerned about what the public and family members of the deceased might think about their acts of eating the dead. There was an initial public backlash, but after they explained the pact the survivors made to sacrifice their flesh if they died to help the others survive, the outcry diminished and families were more understanding. The incident was later known as the Andes flight disaster and, in the Hispanic world, as ‘El Milagro de los Andes’ (The Miracle of the Andes).
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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