Miracle in the andes

Plane crash in the Andes on October 13, 1972, also known as the Miracle in the Andes ( El Milagro de los Andes) is the crash of charter flight number 571 Uruguayan Air Force with 45 Uruguayan passengers on board (members of the rugby team, their relatives, crew, sponsors). The catastrophe happened over Andes October 13, 1972... More than a quarter of the passengers died in a fall and collision with a rock, a few more died later from wounds and cold. Then, of the remaining 29 survivors, 8 more died in an avalanche that covered their "dwelling" from the aircraft fuselage. The survivors had a minimal supply of food, in addition, they did not have the heat sources necessary to survive in the harsh cold climate at an altitude of 3600 meters. Desperate from hunger and reports on the radio that "all activities to find the missing plane are terminated," people began to eat the frozen bodies of their dead comrades. Rescuers learned about the survivors only 72 days later, when two passengers, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa after a nine-day trek through the mountains, a Chilean farmer was found, who gave them food and informed the authorities about the rest of the passengers on the flight.

October 13, 1972, v friday, turboprop FH-227 Uruguayan Air Force drove through Andes junior team rugby league "Old Christians" from Montevideo, Uruguay, for a match in the Chilean capital Santiago. The flight began the day before 12 October, when the flight departed from Carrasco airport, but due to bad weather the plane landed at the airport of the city Mendoza, Argentina and stayed there overnight. The plane was unable to fly directly to Santiago due to weather, so the pilots had to fly south parallel to the Mendoza Mountains, then turn west, then head north and begin their descent to Santiago after passing Curico. When the pilot reported the passage of Curico, the air traffic controller allowed decline on Santiago. This was a fatal mistake. The plane flew into a cyclone and began to descend, focusing only on time. When the cyclone was passed, it became clear that they were flying straight to the rock and there was no way to escape the collision. As a result, the plane caught the top of the peak with its tail. As a result of impacts on rocks and the ground, the car lost its tail and wings. The fuselage rolled at great speed down the slope until it crashed its nose into the blocks of snow. Place of fall - coordinates: 34° 45 "54" S 70° 17 "11" W.(province of Mendoza).

Of the 45 passengers, 12 died in or shortly after the accident; then five more died the next morning, and then another passenger on Flight 571 died of his wounds. The remaining 27 people were faced with the problem of survival in harsh climatic conditions. The people had neither warm clothes and shoes, nor climbing equipment, nor medicines. To somehow help wounded comrades, two freshmen from medical college made hammocks and medical splints from the wreckage of the plane.

Surviving passengers among the wreckage

Search operations

The authorities of the three countries immediately began operations to search for the plane that had disappeared from the radar. But, since it was white and practically merged with the mountain landscape, it was never possible to find it. On the eighth day, all search operations were terminated. The passengers on the flight found a small radio and Roy Harley was the first to hear the news on the eleventh day after the crash.

The survivors had a meager supply of food: a few bars of chocolate, some crackers, and a few bottles of wine. In order to save money, all this was divided equally and stretched out over several days. Water was obtained by laying snow on metal sheets and melting it in the sun. Even with austerity, food supplies quickly dried up. Moreover, there were no plants or animals around. In order not to starve to death, it was decided to eat meat from the bodies of the dead comrades. This decision was not easy, since each of the victims was someone else's friend, classmate or relative.

All passengers on the plane were Roman Catholics and at first perceived this proposal as offensive and inappropriate. But after a few days, exhausted by hunger, they changed their minds on this matter. Some have even compared cannibalism to the rite of Holy Communion.

On October 29, while the survivors were sleeping, an avalanche descended from the mountains to the valley where the fuselage was located. Eight more people died from this natural disaster. For three days, the living, along with the corpses, were trapped in snow in the cramped space of the remains of the aircraft. Then Nando Parradov kicked out a small window in the cockpit, thus saving people from suffocation.

Even before the avalanche, the survivors realized that help would not come and that they had to save themselves. The pilots said they flew over Curico, which meant Chile's Green Valleys were just a few miles west of the crash site. Volunteered for the campaign Nando Parrado, Roberto Canessa, Numa Turcatti and Antonio Vizintin, however Turcatti died of blood poisoning shortly before the expedition.

Canessa did not dare to go hiking for a long time, waiting for the end of winter and a rise in temperatures. Then the travelers set out. The passengers of the crashed plane gave them a lot of warm clothes and human flesh to be sure of the success of the upcoming operation. Suddenly, a trio of people found the tail section of the plane, which contained luggage. In their suitcases, they found chocolate, cigarettes, clean clothes and much more. After spending the night there, the expedition moved on to Chile, but on the second day they almost died from a sharp drop in temperature and worsening weather conditions. Then it was decided to return to the tail, pick up the batteries and return to the place where the fuselage fell, in order to send an SOS signal from there with the help of the radio.

Returning to the tail compartment, the participants of the campaign realized that the batteries were very heavy and it was not possible to drag them to the fuselage. Then they returned to the others, took the radio from the cockpit and decided to return to the tail to send a signal from there. They took Roy Harley with them on their next trip, who understood electronics better than the rest. However, nothing came of this venture (because the electrical systems of the aircraft use alternating current, and the batteries in the tail give out constant current). The members of the expedition returned back and realized: crossing the mountains to Chile is the only way to salvation.

Now it became clear that the only way to salvation is through the mountains. However, it also became clear that without the possibility of spending the night in the mountains, this transition would become impossible. Then the idea of ​​a sleeping bag was put forward.

It was decided to sew together the large pieces of fabric that had been brought in from the tail. This was done by Carlitos Paes, who was taught to sew by his mother. To make things go faster, he trained others and they helped him in his work.

After the sleeping bag was finished, on December 12, the travelers decided to cross the Andido Chile.

December 12, 1972Parrado, Canessa and Vizintin set out on a campaign. The initiative was taken by Parrado, urging on the tired comrades. The sleeping bag helped them not to die at night from the cold.

The expedition took longer than the travelers expected, so on the third day Parrado and Canessa, taking some of the meat from Vizintin, sent it back to the fuselage. Vizintin made his way back safely in a makeshift sleigh made from the wreckage of an airplane.

Parrado and Canessa continued on their way. Gradually, the snowy landscape disappeared, traces of human activity began to come across. On the ninth day of the journey to Los Maitenes (coordinates: 34 ° 48 "44" S 70° 35 "20" W.) they met the Chilean shepherd Sergio Catalan. The shepherd informed the authorities of the surviving passengers on Flight 571. Two of the travelers were rescued.

Soon, Parrado was hired by the authorities to take part in the rescue operation.

Parrado and Canessa next toChilean shepherd Sergio Catalan

On December 22, two helicopters reached the crash site, but due to bad weather and the inability to return here again on the same day, the rescue expedition took only half of the passengers. The second expedition reached this place in the morning of the next day. All 16 surviving passengers were rescued. They were soon taken to the Santiago hospitals. They were treated for altitude sickness, dehydration, frostbite, scurvy, bone fractures and malnutrition.

December 28, 1972the survivors held a press conference where they talked about their existence between life and death for 72 days.

Later, rescuers returned to the crash site and buried the bodies of the dead under stones and debris of the fuselage. An iron cross was installed on top.

Memorial to the Lost Passengers of Flight 571

In 2009, it was reported that 16 survivors had agreed to promote organ donation in a campaign run by the Uruguayan National Institute for Donation and Transplantation that encourages citizens to register for the government's organ donation program. According to José Luis Insyarte, one of the survivors of the plane crash, they advise people to make "an agreement with life", as did the lost in the mountains 37 years ago. On October 13, 2007 in Montevideo a match was held between the club Old christians club and the Chilean national team. The ball was brought into play by an old Chilean shepherd from the Andes, Sergio Catalan, who first discovered on the 71st day after the crash of the two survivors of the crash.

§ Pierce Paul Reid - "Alive: The Story of the Andean Survivors" (1974)

§ Nando Parrado - "Miracle in the Andes" (2006)

§ Anton Mild - "In Ice Captivity" (2007)

§ Superviventes de los Andes (1976)

§ Alive (1993)

§ Alive: Twenty Years Later (1993)

From Wikipedia

Nando with his wife, daughter and George Harrison.

Jackie Stewart and Nando Parrado

The Parrado family.