Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains in Argentina on 13 October 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as both the Andes flight disaster (, literally Tragedy of the Andes) and the Miracle of the Andes ().

The inexperienced co-pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Dante Héctor Lagurara, was piloting the aircraft at the time of the accident. He mistakenly believed the aircraft had overflown Curicó, the turning point to fly north, and began descending towards what he thought was the Pudahuel Airport in Santiago de Chile. He failed to notice that the instrument readings indicated that he was still east of Curicó. Lagurara, upon regaining visual flight conditions, saw the mountain and unsuccessfully tried to gain altitude. The aircraft struck a mountain ridge, shearing off both wings and the tail cone. The remaining portion of the fuselage slid down a glacier at an estimated , descending before ramming into an ice and snow mound.

The flight was carrying 45 passengers and crew, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team, along with their families, supporters and friends. Three crew members and nine passengers died immediately and several more died soon after due to the frigid temperatures and the severity of their injuries. The crash site is located at an elevation of in the remote Andes mountains of western Argentina, just east of the border with Chile.

During the 72 days following the crash, the survivors suffered from extreme hardships, including sub-zero temperatures, exposure, starvation, and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of 13 more passengers. The remaining passengers resorted to eating the flesh of those who died in order to survive. Of the 19 team members on the flight, seven of the rugby players survived the ordeal; 11 players and the team physician perished.

Convinced that they would die if they did not seek help, Nando Parrado, Antonio "Tintin" Vizintín, and Roberto Canessa, set out across the mountains on 12 December. After three days, Tintin was sent back to the fuselage so that Parrado and Canessa could make the food last. After nine days, they spotted Sergio Catalán on horseback, thus ending their trek. On 22 and 23 December 1972, two-and-a-half months after the crash, the remaining 14 survivors were rescued. Their survival made worldwide news.

The story of the "Andes flight disaster" is depicted in the 1993 English-language film Alive and the 2023 Spanish-language film Society of the Snow.

Flight and accident

Flight origin

Members of the amateur Old Christians Club rugby union team from Montevideo, Uruguay, were scheduled to play a match in Santiago, Chile, against the Old Boys Club, an English rugby team. With the aircraft loaded to capacity, this direct route would have required the pilot to fly very carefully to avoid the mountains. Instead, it was customary for turboprops to fly the longer , 90-minute U-shaped route to Malargüe south of Mendoza using the A7 airway (now UW44), then west along the G-17 airway (now UB684), crossing Planchón pass and on to the Curicó radiobeacon in Chile, and from there due north to descend and land in Santiago. After crossing the Andes into Chile the aircraft was supposed to turn north and initiate their descent into Pudahuel Airport in Santiago.

The crash

The group survived by eating the bodies of their dead comrades. This decision was not taken lightly, as most of the dead were classmates, close friends, or relatives. Canessa cut the meat with a shard of broken windshield glass. He set the example by swallowing the first matchstick-sized lump of human flesh. Several others followed suit over the next few days, but a few still kept refusing to eat it. Javier Methol and his wife Liliana, the only surviving female passenger at the time, were the last to eat human flesh. Liliana had very strong religious convictions against doing so and only reluctantly agreed to eat after someone suggested that doing so was akin to receiving the Holy Communion.

Avalanche

Close to midnight on 29 October and sixteen days after the crash, an avalanche struck the fuselage while the survivors were asleep, almost filling the fuselage with snow and ice and smothering eight people to death: Enrique Platero, Liliana Methol, Gustavo Nicolich, Daniel Maspons, Juan Menendez, Diego Storm, Carlos Roque and Marcelo Perez. The death of Perez, rugby team captain and leader of the survivors, along with the loss of Liliana Methol, who had nursed many injured passengers "like a mother and a saint", were particularly difficult to bear for the remaining survivors. At 34 years old and the mother of four children, Methol was the last of the five female passengers to perish; the survivors made an agreement that her body would not be touched.

The avalanche completely buried the fuselage, filling it to within of the ceiling. The survivors trapped inside quickly realized they would soon run out of air. Parrado took a metal pole from the luggage racks and used it to pry open one of the cockpit windscreens and to poke a hole through the snow for fresh air.

The blizzard raged furiously for three days, trapping the survivors together with the bodies of the deceased inside the snow-filled fuselage. On the third day, they began to eat the flesh of their newly deceased friends. Parrado later said: "It was soft and greasy, streaked with blood and bits of wet cartilage. I gagged hard when I placed it in my mouth."

The decision was made for a few survivors to leave on an expedition to get help. Some survivors were determined to join the expedition team, including Canessa (one of the two medical students), but other survivors were less willing to do so or were unsure of their ability to stand up to such a physically demanding ordeal. Numa Turcatti and Antonio Vizintín were selected to accompany Canessa and Parrado. Turcatti's wounded leg had become infected, so he was unable to join the expedition. Canessa, Parrado, and Vizintín were among the most physically fit and were allocated larger rations of meat to build their strength for the expedition and the warmest clothes to withstand the nighttime cold they would have to face on the mountain. --> The survivors heard on the transistor radio that the Uruguayan Air Force had resumed searching for them.

Turcatti died after the sleeping bag was completed. Canessa was still hesitant about the trip. While the remaining survivors encouraged Parrado to go on the expedition, no one actually volunteered to go with him. Parrado finally persuaded Canessa it was time to set out and together with Vizintín, the three men began climbing the mountain on 12 December.

Climbing the western peak

right|thumb|The survivors' expedition had to climb the western rim of the glacier cirque before descending into Chile. Santuario y monumento de la tragedia de Andes, the rock pile memorializing the victims and survivors is in the foreground.

Based on the aircraft's broken altimeter, they thought they were at , when they were actually at .

The improvised sleeping bag they shared kept them alive through the nights. In the documentary film Stranded, Canessa described how on the first night they had difficulty finding level ground to place the sleeping bag on. A blizzard blew fiercely and they finally found a rocky ledge at the edge of a cliff level enough for the sleeping bag. Canessa said it was the worst night of his life. The climb was slow and tedious. The survivors at the base camp watched them climb for three long days.

Finding help

thumb|upright|Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa (sitting) with Chilean [[arriero Sergio Catalán]]

Parrado and Canessa hiked down for seven more days into Chile. They reached the narrow valley that Parrado had seen from the top of the mountain, finding a river, and eventually the end of the snowline. They continued descending along the river,

Canessa was exhausted and unable to keep walking so they rested for the evening. As they gathered wood for a fire, they saw three men on horseback on the other side of the river. Parrado called out 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 shouted back: "Tomorrow!" The next day the man returned, scribbled a note, tied the note with a pencil to a stone and threw the stone across the river to Parrado. Parrado replied:

, a Chilean arriero, read the note and made signs that he understood. He threw a loaf of bread to the two men across the river and went for help, riding to Puente Negro, a small town which was “eight hours away on horseback, and still more time on real roads.” He would return with ten carbineers.

In the meantime, Parrado and Canessa arrived on horseback to a cabin at Los Maitenes where they were fed and allowed to rest.

Helicopter rescue

When the news broke out that survivors had emerged from the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, the story of their 72-day ordeal drew international attention.

The Chilean Air Force provided three Bell UH-1 helicopters to assist with the rescue. They flew in heavy cloud cover under instrument conditions to Los Maitenes, where the Army interviewed Parrado and Canessa. Once the fog lifted at noon, Parrado guided the helicopters to the crash site in Argentina with the pilot's map he had brought with him. One of the helicopters remained behind as backup. The pilots were astounded at the difficult terrain the two men had crossed to get help. The survivors were taken to hospitals in Santiago for evaluation and were treated for altitude sickness, dehydration, frostbite, broken bones, scurvy and malnutrition. (agronomy student)

Roberto "Bobby" François*
Roy Harley* (engineering student)
José "Coche" Luis Inciarte†
Álvaro Mangino†
Javier Methol†
Nando Parrado*
Carlos Páez Rodríguez*
Ramón "Moncho" Sabella
Adolfo "Fito" Strauch
*
Antonio "Tintin" Vizintín*
Gustavo Zerbino* (medical student)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> Rugby player<br />

† Survivors who are now deceased

Aftermath

The survivors told the press they had managed to stay alive eating cheese and other food items they had brought with them, and after these ran out, local vegetation. They planned to discuss the actual details of how they survived, including the decision to eat the flesh of those who died, first only with their families. False rumors circulated in Montevideo saying they had killed some of the survivors for food. On 23 December, news reports of cannibalism were published worldwide, except in Uruguay. On 26 December, two pictures taken by members of Cuerpo de Socorro Andino (Andean Relief Corps) of a half-eaten human leg were printed on the front page of two Chilean newspapers, El Mercurio and La Tercera de la Hora,

The survivors held a press conference on 28 December at the Stella Maris College in Montevideo to tell the story of their 72-day ordeal. Alfredo Delgado acted as the spokesman for the survivors. He compared their actions to that of Jesus at the Last Supper, during which he gave his disciples the Eucharist. The survivors initially faced a backlash of public opinion, but after they explained the pact the survivors had made among themselves to sacrifice their flesh in case of death to help the others survive, the outcry subsided and their families became more understanding. The news of their survival, and what they were forced to resort to, drew world-wide attention and developed into a media circus.

Burial of the remains at the crash site

The Argentine authorities and the victims' families decided to bury the remains of the victims at the crash site in a common grave. Thirteen bodies were whole while another 15 consisted only of skeletal remains.

They doused the remains of aircraft wreckage with gasoline and set it on fire. Eduardo Strauch later wrote in his book Out of the Silence that the bottom half of the fuselage, covered in snow and thus spared by the fire, was still there when he returned in 1995. The incident was later analyzed in a case study by German researchers, where accounts from the survivors were used to demonstrate how building communities and interacting with others could help project members develop resilience in the face of adversity.

The themes of resilience, perseverance, community-building, and leadership present in the stories of the survivors have also made the 1972 Andes plane crash notable for challenging, and being the opposite of, dystopian fictional tales such as Lord of the Flies and Yellowjackets. In a 2024 op-ed on the 2023 film, Society of the Snow, two of the survivors, Roberto Canessa and Gustavo Zerbino state that they "and others have been telling our story for half a century, but the filmmaker J.A. Bayona has captured it in ways that we find inspiring and fresh all over again. In many respects, Society of the Snow violates a well-worn tenet of all drama: it is a film free of an antagonist. Yes, it is a classic man-versus-nature narrative, but there is no evil present in the film. It is a film free of cynicism, brimming with pure humanity, accessible to a wide spectrum of viewers. It is a film that has broken the boundaries of language with the universal message that everyone has the immeasurable potential to rise to the occasion, thanks, in great part, to the alliances we can and should forge as we share this planet together." Pablo Vierci also states in his 2008 book Society of the Snow (the basis for Bayona's film) that "contrary to what apocalyptic fiction predicts, the human mob, the 'every man for himself' scenario, did not happen here. Instead what arose was a spirit of harmony and solidarity, where the most important thing was to take care of those who were most injured."

thumb|The sculpture of , a Chilean [[arriero, next to a display case with his original poncho, located in the Andes Museum 1972, Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo, Uruguay]]

Library, foundation, monument, and museum

The mothers of 11 of the victims who died in the crash founded Uruguay's Our Children Library in 1973 to promote reading and teaching.

Family members of victims founded Fundación Viven in 2006 in order to preserve the legacy of the Andes crash, the memory of the victims, and to support organ donation. In addition, the families of the victims of the crash built a black obelisk monument at the crash site to memorialize those who lived and died there in March 2006.

The story of the crash is the focus of the Andes Museum 1972, which opened in 2013 in Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo.

Sergio Catalán

In 2007, while being interviewed on Chilean television, arriero Sergio Catalán revealed he had arthrosis of the hip. Canessa (who had become a doctor) and other survivors raised money to pay for his hip replacement surgery. Catalán died in 2020 at the age of 91.

Media

Documentaries

Alive: 20 Years Later (1993) is an American documentary film produced, directed, and written by Jill Fullerton-Smith and narrated by Martin Sheen. It explores the lives of the survivors 20 years after the crash and discusses their participation in the production of the 1993 American film, Alive: The Miracle of the Andes.
Stranded: I've Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains (2007), written and directed by Gonzalo Arijón, is a documentary film interlaced with dramatised scenes. All the survivors are interviewed, along with some of their family members and people involved with the rescue operation, and an expedition in which the survivors return to the crash site is documented. The film premiered at the 2007 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Netherlands and received the Joris Ivens Award. This film appeared on PBS Independent Lens as "Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors" in May 2009.
Trapped-National Geographic Channel series: "Episode 1, "Alive in the Andes" (7 November 2007) is the first episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary television series Trapped. This series examines incidents that left survivors trapped in their situation for a period of time.
I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash (20 October 2010) is a documentary film directed by Brad Osborne that first aired on the History Channel. The film mixed reenactments with interviews with the survivors and members of the original search teams. Also interviewed were Piers Paul Read, renowned mountain climber Ed Viesturs, Andes Survivors expert and alpinist Ricardo Peña, historians, expert pilots, and high-altitude medical experts.
Prisoners of the Snow: A Special Edition of 20/20 (22 May 2023), is an American documentary broadcast on ABC News.

Feature films

thumb|Survivors Canessa, Páez Rodríguez and Parrado (from the left) attend the [[2023 Venice Film Festival|Venice première of the movie Society of the Snow with their wives in 2023]]

Survive! (1976), also known as Supervivientes de los Andes, is a Spanish-language feature film (from Mexico) directed by René Cardona, Jr., and based on Clay Blair's 1973 unauthorized account, Survive!
Alive (1993) is an American English-language feature film directed by Frank Marshall, with a cast of actors from the United States. It is based on Piers Paul Read's 1974 book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors. Nando Parrado served as a technical adviser to the film, and 11 of the survivors visited the set during the production.
Society of the Snow (2023), also known as La Sociedad de la Nieve, is a Spanish-language feature film (from Spain) directed by J. A. Bayona, with a cast of actors from Uruguay and Argentina. It is based on Pablo Vierci's 2008 book of the same name, features cameos of several of the survivors, and premiered on Netflix on 4 January 2024. It won 12 awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the 38th Goya Awards, 6 awards at the 11th Platino Awards, and was nominated for 2 Academy Awards.

Podcasts

Sarah Marshall and Blair Braverman chronicled the story in the podcast You're Wrong About in October 2022 for its Halloween episode.
"Lost in an icy hell: my 72 day mountain escape" chronicles the story in an interview with survivor Nando Parrado as part of the BBC's podcast series Lives Less Ordinary, hosted by Asya Fouks.
Alaina Urquhart and Ash Kelley covered the crash on their true crime podcast Morbid on 20 January 2025 in "Episode 638: The Crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571".
The Last Podcast on the Left covered the crash with a three-part series "Survival in the Andes" in December 2023: "Part I – Stayin' Alive", "Part II – Buried Alive", and "Part III – Still Alive".

Theater

The play Sobrevivir a los Andes (Surviving the Andes) was written by Gabriel Guerrero and premiered on 13 October 2017. Based on the account written by Nando Parrado, it was presented in 2017 at Teatro la Candela in Montevideo, Uruguay and in 2018 at Teatro Regina in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Miracle Flight 571, composed and created by Lloyd Burritt, is a two-act chamber opera based on the book Miracle in the Andes by Parrado. It received its musical premiere at the 2016 What Next Festival of Music.

References

External links

Andes Crash Memorial: Andes 1972 Museum
Archival footage of the survivors leaving the helicopters - Associated Press, San Fernando, Chile, 22 December 1972.