Air crash in the Andes: 50 years later, the unforgettable survival of survivors driven to cannibalism

Published on: 13/10/2022 – 11:51 On October 13, 1972, a plane carrying young rugby players between Uruguay and Chile crashed in the Andes mountain range. The survivors will spend 72 days cut off from the world there and will resort to cannibalism to survive. Sixteen of the 45 people on board will eventually manage to survive. “Life gives you the opportunity to experience things that mark you but allow you to grow.” This is the definition of existence given, at the end of September, by Gustavo Zerbino, aged 68, to the Argentine daily Clarin. A man who, for fifty years, has told of his inspiring survival at an altitude of more than 3,700 meters, in the heart of the Andes. Gustavo Zerbino belonged to the Old Cristians of Montevideo rugby team which was going to Santiago de Chile. Survivors said the flight was very choppy, with significant air pockets. Suddenly, the plane hits a mountain and spirals out of control. It ends its run on a snowy platform and comes to a halt after a long slide, broken into several pieces. The investigators concluded that the pilot, who died during the crash, had made a navigation error. Of the 45 passengers, 31 survived the landing. Among them, players, but also crew members and club leaders. Some are very seriously injured and will die in the following days. The survivors hear planes flying over the area and even see one above them. “All together, we made a huge cross in the snow with the empty suitcases and we drew the SOS sign with our feet so that it could be seen from the air”, Roberto Canessa will tell in a text published by The Daily Mail at the 40th anniversary of the disaster. They then think they have been spotted, even jumping for joy.”We are the ones who broke the taboo”Their hopes of rescue are gradually fading. Help does not arrive and the 27 people still alive engage in a fight of which they know neither the duration nor the outcome. “We no longer belonged to this world, we had become creatures from another planet,” says Roberto Canessa, who was then 19 years old. Like him, most of his comrades in misfortune were very young and were able to take advantage of their physical vigor to survive. At such an altitude, there is no flora or fauna to help them fight against hunger. Only water is not lacking, thanks to the snow they melt. “We were going to become too weak to withstand the hunger. We knew what to do but it was too terrible to think about. The lifeless bodies of our friends and teammates, preserved by the snow and the cold, contained vital proteins which could help us survive”, explains Roberto Canessa. And to add: “We are the ones who broke the taboo.” The survivors indulge in cannibalism. They resign themselves to it to save their lives, after having discussed it for a long time among themselves. This decision allows the most resistant to last two months in terrible survival conditions. Until three of them choose to embark on a final expedition to try to prevent relief. On December 12, 1972, the trio begins its descent on the Chilean flank of the Cordillera. One of them quickly turns back towards the camp. After several days of walking, two survivors of the disaster arrive at the foot of the mountains. One of them, Fernando Parrado, then sees a Chilean peasant on the other side of a river. The distance between them is too great and they fail to communicate. Fernando Parrado scribbles a few sentences on a sheet that he wraps around a pebble. This paper says in particular: “I come from a plane which crashed in the mountain. I am Uruguayan. I have been walking for ten days. Near the plane, there are fourteen wounded.” Museum, books and conferences Rescue take a few hours to reach the two survivors, then reach the wreckage of the plane. They can’t believe that sixteen people managed to last for 72 days at such an altitude. Among the survivors was 20-year-old Roy Harley. This solid winger of 85 kg on the day of the crash weighs only 38 on December 22, 1972. The research having been abandoned for a long time, the Chilean and Argentine authorities then speak of a “miracle”. Some of the survivors of the plane crash, sheltering in the gutted cabin, when help arrived on December 22, 1972. AP Later revelations about cannibalism, made by local media, changed the perception of the incredible stories of survival . The Chilean daily La Segunda writes on its front page “Justified cannibalism” with, in surtitle, “May God forgive them!” The Chilean and Uruguayan Churches are also called upon to get involved in the debate. They both grant their absolution, as does Pope Paul VI. Several of these survivors have told their epic in different books translated into many languages. Their adventure also inspired the film “The Survivors”, released in 1993, and a museum Andes 1972, which was born ten years ago in Montevideo “to defend the values ​​emanating from this history”. Calvary in conferences they give all over the world. At each intervention, they tell the importance of never losing hope, the need to fight until the end and to help each other. A message that they are sometimes called upon to deliver directly to disaster sites, like Gustavo Zerbino, who went to Chile in 2010 to talk to around thirty miners stranded underground for 70 days.