Because of the co-pilot's dying statement that the aircraft had passed Curic, the group believed the Chilean countryside was just a few kilometres away to the west. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with him about his story of hope in his book, Out of the Silence: After the Crash. Nando Parrado woke from his coma after three days to learn that his mother had died and that his 19-year-old sister Susana Parrado was severely injured. Once he held those items in his hands, he felt himself transported back to the mountains. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with him about his story of hope in his book, Out of the Silence: After. For three days, the remaining survivors were trapped in the extremely cramped space within the buried fuselage with about 1 metre (3ft 3in) headroom, together with the corpses of those who had died in the avalanche. This edition also has a new subtitle: Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds: The Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes. The book inspired the song "The Plot Sickens" on the album Every Trick in the Book by the American metalcore band Ice Nine Kills. In 1972, a plane carrying young men from a Uruguayan rugby team, crashed high in the Andes. [31], Sergio Cataln, a Chilean arriero (muleteer), read the note and gave them a sign that he understood. As he began to descend, the aircraft struck a mountain, shearing off both wings and the tail section. Crashed at 3:34p.m. The conditions were such that the pair could not reach him, but from afar they heard him say one word: "Tomorrow". Numa Turcatti, whose extreme revulsion for eating the meat dramatically accelerated his physical decline, died on day 60 (11 December) weighing only 25 kg (55 pounds). But none of it would have been possible without Nando Parrado. They removed the seat covers, which were partially made of wool, to use against the cold. [49] Sergio Cataln died on 11 February 2020[50] at the age of 91. The group survived for two and a half months in the Andes In bad. And there were already signs that the flight wouldn't be easy. "With that, our suffering ended," Canessa said. It was really amazing just to manage my mind, my thoughts. Contact would have killed them all, but by a miracle they missed the obstacles and more than half of those onboard "barely had a scratch on them". Jorge Zerbino, nephew of one of the survivors, is in the Uruguay squad. After ten days the group of survivors heard on a radio that the search for them had been called off. Parrado finally persuaded Canessa to set out, and joined by Vizintn, the three men took to the mountain on 12 December. Others had open fractures to the legs and without treatment none of that group survived the next two and a half months in the frozen wilderness. [26], On the third morning of the trek, Canessa stayed at their camp. To live at 4,000m without any food," said another survivor, Eduardo Strauch, 65. One of the team members, Roy Harley, was an amateur electronics enthusiast, and they recruited his help in the endeavour. The remaining survivors of an Uruguayan rugby team were rescued when their plane crashed into the Andes after months of waiting. [24][25] With considerable difficulty, on the morning of 31 October, they dug a tunnel from the cockpit to the surface, only to encounter a furious blizzard that left them no choice but to stay inside the fuselage. "Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, also known as the Andes flight disaster, and in South America as Miracle in the Andes (El Milagro de los Andes) was a chartered flight carrying 45 people, including a rugby team, their friends, family and associates that crashed in the Andes on 13 October 1972. Among those survivors was a young architect named Eduardo Strauch, who held off writing about the tragedy until now. It was Friday the 13th of October in 1972 when an Uruguayan aircraft carrying the Old Christians rugby team and their friends and family went down in the mountains in Argentina, near the border . The white plane was invisible in the snowy blanket of the mountain. "Out Of The Silence: After The Crash" is a story of endurance and the spiritual awakening that came after 72 days trapped in the Andes. [33] A flood of international reporters began walking several kilometers along the route from Puente Negro to Termas del Flaco. He said the experience scarred him but gave him a new-found appreciation for life. Search efforts were cancelled after eight days. [38] The news of their survival and the actions required to live drew world-wide attention and grew into a media circus. The ight carried forty-ve passengers, including f-teen members of the Old Christians Rugby team. They placed a plaque on the pile of rocks inscribed:[39], EL MUNDO A SUS HERMANOS URUGUAYOSCERCA, OH DIOS DE TI The flight time from the pass to Curic is normally 11 minutes, but only three minutes later the pilot told Santiago that they were passing Curic and turning north. The steep terrain only permitted the pilot to touch down with a single skid. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Eduardo Strauch's book, written with Uruguayan author Mireya Soriano, is called "Out Of The Silence.". In 2007, Chilean arriero Sergio Cataln was interviewed on Chilean television during which he revealed that he had leg (hip) arthrosis. The Fairchild turboprop was grounded in the middle of the Cordillera Occidental, a poorly mapped range almost 100 miles wide and home to Aconcagua, at 22,834 feet the . Parrado called them, but the noise of the river made it impossible to communicate. Cataln threw bread to the men across the river. Eventually spotted by a peasant farmer in the Chilean foothills they reached help and returned via helicopter to rescue the rest of those waiting to die in the mountains. 'Because it means,' [Nicolich] said, 'that we're going to get out of here on our own.' This decision was not taken lightly, as most of the dead were classmates, close friends, or relatives. [29] They thought they would reach the peak in one day. [12][37] The survivors received public backlash initially, but after they explained the pact the survivors had made to sacrifice their flesh if they died to help the others survive, the outcry diminished and the families were more understanding. And after almost 2 1/2 months, the 16 survivors were rescued. [5][14], The plane fuselage came to rest on a glacier at 344554S 701711W / 34.76500S 70.28639W / -34.76500; -70.28639 at an elevation of 3,570 metres (11,710ft) in the Malarge Department, Mendoza Province. They took over harvesting flesh from their deceased friends and distributing it to the others. At Canessa's urging, they waited nearly seven days to allow for higher temperatures. The passengers decided that a few members would seek help. I get used to. 'Hey boys,' he shouted, 'there's some good news! It had its wings ripped off on impact, leading to the immediate death of 12 passengers and crew. ', Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Photo by EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP via Getty Images. 'Alive' is thunderous entertainment: I know the events by rote, nonetheless I found it electric. By anyone, in fact, whose business it is to prepare men for adversity. But we got used to it. Rumors circulated in Montevideo immediately after the rescue that the survivors had killed some of the others for food. Lagurara radioed the Malarge airport with their position and told them they would reach 2,515 metres (8,251ft) high Planchn Pass at 3:21p.m. Planchn Pass is the air traffic control hand-off point from one side of the Andes to the other, with controllers in Mendoza transferring flight tracking duties over to Pudahuel air traffic control in Santiago, Chile. Parrado now sees those who died and gave up their bodies for food as the very first "consent donors", like modern organ donors enabling others to live. There was no natural vegetation and there were no animals on either the glacier or nearby snow-covered mountain. "Discipline, teamwork, endurance. They improvised in other ways. And we can change the direction of our life if we propose to do it. Condemned to die without any hope we transported the rugby feeling to the cold fuselage at 12,000ft.". "[29] The next morning, the three men could see that the hike was going to take much longer than they had originally planned. They were abandoned, and in their minds condemned to die. Unable to obtain official permission to retrieve his son's body, Ricardo Echavarren mounted an expedition on his own with hired guides. Nando Parrado had a skull fracture and remained in a coma for three days. A few seconds later, Daniel Shaw and Carlos Valeta fell out of the rear fuselage. The inexperienced co-pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Dante Hctor Lagurara, was at the controls when the accident occurred. And important. Carlos Pez, 58, waved a small red shoe at a helicopter carrying Parrado, as he did when the Chilean air force rescued him and the others. Without His consent, I felt I would be violating the memory of my friends; that I would be stealing their souls. I realized the power of our minds. He says reintegrating himself back into society was hard. Meanwhile, Parrado and Canessa were brought on horseback to Los Maitenes de Curic, where they were fed and allowed to rest. The surviving members of a Uruguayan rugby team have played a match postponed four decades ago when their plane crashed in the Andes, stranding them for 72 days and forcing them to eat human flesh to stay alive. 2022-10-13 21:00:26 - Paris/France. La sociedad de la nieve, 2nd ed. We have just some chocolates and biscuits for 29 people, so we start getting very weak immediately. Fito Strauch devised a way to obtain water in freezing conditions by using sheet metal from under the seats and placing snow on it. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [2] Club president Daniel Juan chartered a Uruguayan Air Force twin turboprop Fairchild FH-227D to fly the team over the Andes to Santiago. He refused to give up hope. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Of course, the aspect of the story that has gained the most notoriety was the decision you all made that in order to survive, you would have to start eating your dead friends. They also built a cross in the snow using luggage, but it was unseen by the search and rescue aircraft. There were 10 extra seats and the team members invited a few friends and family members to accompany them. The unnamed glacier (later named Glaciar de las Lgrimas or Glacier of Tears) is between Mount Sosneado and 4,280 metres (14,040ft) high Volcn Tinguiririca, straddling the remote mountainous border between Chile and Argentina.