Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox aircraft occurrence Template:Location map many 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 (Template:Lang, literally Tragedy of the Andes) and the Miracle of the Andes (Template:Lang).

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 Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert, descending Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert in the remote Andes mountains of western Argentina, just east of the border with Chile.<ref name="natlgeo1" /> Search and rescue aircraft overflew the crash site several times during the following days, but failed to see the white fuselage against the snow. Search efforts were called off after eight days of searching.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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, two survivors, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, set out across the mountains on 12 December. Using only materials found in the aircraft wreck, they climbed for three days Template:Convert from the crash site up 30-to-60 degree slopes to a Template:Convert ridge to the west of the summit of Mount Seler. From there they trekked Template:Convert for seven more days into Chile before finding help. 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.<ref name="Quigley" /> Club president Daniel Juan chartered a Uruguayan Air Force twin turboprop Fairchild FH-227 airplane to fly the team over the Andes mountains to Santiago. The aircraft carried 40 passengers and 5 crew members. The pilot in command, Colonel Julio César Ferradas, was an experienced Air Force pilot with 5,117 hours of flight time. He was accompanied by co-pilot Lieutenant-Colonel Dante Héctor Lagurara. There were ten extra seats, so the team invited friends and family members to accompany them. When someone cancelled at the last minute, Graziela Mariani purchased a ticket so she could attend her oldest daughter's wedding.<ref name="Quigley" />

The aircraft departed Carrasco International Airport on 12 October 1972, but a storm front over the Andes forced them to spend the night in Mendoza, Argentina, to wait for meteorological conditions to improve. Although there is a direct westerly route from Mendoza to Santiago, the high mountains including Mount Aconcagua at Template:Convert were near the FH-227D's service ceiling of Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 Template:Convert, 90-minute U-shaped route<ref name="Quigley" >Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Caputti">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="tragedia" />

The weather on 13 October affected the flight adversely. On the morning of the flight meteorological conditions over the Andes had yet to improve, but the weather was expected to improve by the early afternoon. The pilot delayed the flight and took off from Mendoza at 2:18Template:Nbspp.m. on Friday 13 October. He flew south towards the Malargüe radiobeacon at flight level 180 (Template:Convert). Lagurara radioed their position to Malargüe Airport to inform them that they expected to cross the Template:Convert high Planchón pass at 3:21Template:Nbspp.m. Planchón pass is the air traffic control hand-off point between Chile and Argentina.<ref name="As the Accident" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After crossing the Andes into Chile the aircraft was supposed to turn north and initiate their descent into Pudahuel Airport in Santiago.

The crash

Pilot Ferradas had previously flown across the Andes 29 times. On this flight he was training co-pilot Lagurara, who was at the controls. As they flew above the Andes, clouds obscured the mountains below.<ref name="safety" /><ref name="Caputti" /> The aircraft was four years old with 792 hours on the airframe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The plane was nicknamed the "lead sled" by pilots because they considered it underpowered.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Taringa">Template:Cite web</ref> The fuselage of this aircraft and others had been stretched to add a Template:Convert section, increasing passenger capacity from 52 to 56, and making room for more cargo between the cockpit and the passenger cabin. A total of 78 FH-227 aircraft were built, 23 of which eventually crashed.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> The 1972 Andes flight disaster was the tenth FH-227 crash<ref name="aerotime">Template:Cite web</ref> since the model was introduced in 1966.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Due to cloud cover the pilots were flying under instrument meteorological conditions at an altitude of Template:Convert at FL180 through the Template:Convert high Planchón pass and could not visually confirm their location from the terrain below.Template:Fact

At 3:21Template:Nbspp.m., shortly after crossing Planchón pass, Lagurara notified air traffic controllers that he expected to reach Curicó a minute later. While some reports state the co-pilot incorrectly estimated his position using dead reckoning, he was relying on radio navigation.<ref name="Taringa" /> For unknown reasons, he did not see the aircraft's VOR/DME navigation radio displaying the bearing and distance to the Curicó radio beacon, still Template:Convert due west of Planchón pass.Template:Fact

The flight time from Planchón pass to Curicó is normally 11 minutes, but only three minutes later the co-pilot radioed Santiago that they were overflying Curicó and turning due north. He requested permission from air traffic control to descend. The controller authorized the aircraft to descend to Template:Convert, unaware due to lack of radar coverage that the airplane was still flying over the Andes.<ref name="safety" /><ref name="Taringa" /><ref name="Caputti" /> Pilot Ferradas also failed to notice the navigation error.Template:Fact

The aircraft encountered severe turbulence as it descended. Nando Parrado recalled that the plane rapidly descended several hundred feet out of the clouds. At first the rugby players joked about the turbulence until they saw the aircraft was flying abnormally close to the mountains. "That was probably the moment when the pilots saw the black ridge rising dead ahead."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Roberto Canessa later said he thought the pilot had turned due north too soon and began the descent to Santiago while the aircraft was still flying over the Andes. Then "he began to climb, until the plane was nearly vertical and it began to stall and shake."<ref name="cannibal" /> The aircraft's ground collision alarm sounded and scared all the passengers.<ref name="tragedia" />

The pilots applied maximum power to gain altitude and climb over the Template:Convert high southern ridge of the glacier's cirque. Witness accounts and evidence at the scene indicated the plane struck the mountain two or three times.

The co-pilot was able to bring the aircraft nose over the ridge, but at 3:34Template:Nbspp.m., the lower part of the tail-cone may have clipped the ridge at Template:Convert. The next collision severed the right wing. Some evidence indicates it was thrown back with such force that it may have been the event that tore off the tail-cone. When the tail-cone was sheared off, it took with it the rear part of the aircraft, including two rows of seats, the galley, baggage hold, vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizer, leaving a gaping hole in the rear. Three passengers, the navigator and the flight attendant were lost with the tail section.<ref name="Caputti" /><ref name="Quigley" />

The aircraft's momentum and its remaining engine carried it forward and upward until a rock outcropping at Template:Convert tore off the left wing. Its propeller sliced through the fuselage.<ref name="Caputti" /> Two more passengers fell out of the gaping hole in the rear. The fuselage crashed onto the snow and careened Template:Convert down the steep slope of the glacier at Template:Convert, rammed into a snow bank and came to a sudden stop. The seats broke loose from the floor and were thrown against the forward bulkhead of the fuselage. The impact crushed the cockpit, pinning both pilots against the instrument panel, killing Ferradas immediately.<ref name="record">Template:Cite web</ref>

The official investigation concluded that the crash was caused by controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error.<ref name="As the Accident">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The plane's fuselage came to rest in the cirque of the Glaciar de las Lágrimas or Glacier of Tears at Template:Coord at an elevation of Template:Convert, in the Malargüe Department in the Mendoza Province of Argentina.<ref name="Caputti" /> The glacier lies between the Template:Convert high Mount Sosneado and the Template:Convert high Tinguiririca volcano, straddling the remote mountainous border between Chile and Argentina. It is south of a Template:Convert high mountain (later named Mount Seler by Nando Parrado in honor of his father). Two survivors later climbed the peak before descending into Chile to get help. The aircraft came to rest Template:Convert to the east of its planned route.<ref name="Caputti" />

Crash aftermath

Of the 45 people aboard the aircraft, three passengers and two crew members in the rear section of the fuselage died when the tail cone was ripped from the fuselage: Lt. Ramón Saúl Martínez (navigator), Ovidio Ramírez (steward), Gaston Costemalle, Alexis Hounié and Guido Magri. A few seconds later Daniel Shaw and Carlos Valeta also fell out of the rear fuselage, killing Shaw. Valeta survived the fall but fell into deep snow and asphyxiated while stumbling down the snow-covered glacier.<ref name="Quigley" /> His body was found by fellow passengers on 14 December.<ref name="Vlahos" /><ref name="true" />

When the fuselage slammed into the snow bank, the remaining seats broke loose from the floor, compressing the passengers against the forward bulkheads. Team physician Dr. Francisco Nicola, his wife Esther Nicola, Eugenia Parrado, and Fernando Vazquez were killed. Pilot Ferradas died instantly when the nose gear compressed the instrument panel against his chest and forced his head out of the windshield. Co-pilot Lagurara was critically injured and trapped in the crushed cockpit. He asked one of the passengers to find his pistol and shoot him, but the passengers refused. He died the following day.<ref name="Quigley" /><ref name="tragedia" />

Thirty-three passengers and crew survived the first day, although many were critically or seriously injured. Their wounds included broken legs resulting from the impact of the seats against the forward bulkhead. Both of Arturo Nogueira's legs were broken in several places. None of the passengers with compound fractures survived.<ref name="true" >Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="live" /> Canessa and Gustavo Zerbino, both medical students, quickly triaged the wounded and first treated those they could help most. Nando Parrado had a skull fracture and he remained unconscious for three days, and his sister, Susana, was badly injured and semi-conscious. Graziela Mariani's legs were broken and trapped by twisted seats. Enrique Platero had a piece of metal stuck in his abdomen that when removed brought a few inches of intestine with it. He nonetheless immediately began helping others.<ref name="live" />

Unsuccessful air search

Unknown to the survivors, the abandoned summer resort Hotel Termas el Sosneado was only Template:Convert due east from the crash site.

The Chilean Air Search and Rescue Service (SARS) was notified within the hour that the flight was unaccounted for. Four aircraft began to search for the aircraft based on its last reported position on the Curicó corridor from Angostura to Santiago.<ref name="aerotime" /> News of the missing flight reached Uruguayan media around 6:00Template:Nbspp.m. that evening. When SARS officials could not locate the crash, they listened to recordings of the radio transmissions and concluded the aircraft must have crashed in one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the Andes. They asked the Andes Rescue Group of Chile (CSA) for assistance. Unbeknownst to the passengers or the search teams, the flight had crashed in Argentina even before crossing into Chile, about Template:Convert from the Hotel Termas el Sosneado, an abandoned hot springs resort.<ref name="Quigley" />

On the second day, eleven aircraft from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay searched for the missing flight.<ref name="Quigley" /> The search area covered the accident location and a few aircraft even overflew the crash site. The survivors tried to use lipstick recovered from their luggage to write an SOS message on the roof of the fuselage, but did not have enough lipstick to make large letters that could be seen from the air by rescuers. They also used luggage to fashion a cross on the snow, but it failed to attract the attention of the rescuers.<ref name="Vlahos" /> The survivors saw aircraft overfly the crash site on three occasions but the rescuers were unable to spot the white fuselage against the snow.Template:Fact

The harsh conditions gave the rescuers little hope that they would find anyone alive so rescue efforts were cancelled after eight days of searching.<ref name="live" /> On 21 October, after having searched for more than 142 hours, the searchers concluded the chances of anyone surviving the crash were nil and terminated the search. They planned to resume the search to recover the bodies of the victims in December after the snow melted.Template:Fact

First week of survival

Another five passengers and crew died between the first night and next day: co-pilot Lagurara, Francisco Abal, Graziela Mariani, Felipe Maquirriain and Julio Martinez-Lamas.

The remaining 28 survivors removed the broken seats and other debris to fashion the fuselage into a crude shelter Template:Convert small. They used luggage, seats and snow to close off the rear end of the fuselage. Fito Strauch devised a solar-powered water collector with sheet metal he retrieved from under the seats. To prevent snow blindness, he also improvised sunglasses by cutting the green plastic sun visors in the cockpit and sewing the pieces to bra straps with electrical wire. They used the woolen seat covers to keep warm and seat cushions as snowshoes. The captain of the rugby team, Marcelo Perez, took on a leadership role.<ref name="Vlahos" /><ref name="live" />

After three days Parrado regained consciousness only to learn that his mother had died and his 19-year-old sister Susana was severely injured. He tried to keep his sister alive but on the ninth day she too died from her injuries.<ref name="true" /> The remaining 27 survivors had a hard time during the nights when temperatures plunged to Template:Convert.<ref name="Paez">Template:Cite web</ref> They all had lived their entire lives by the sea and some had never even seen snow before the crash. None had any high-elevation survival training or experience. They lacked medical supplies, cold-weather clothing, equipment, and food. They only had three pairs of sunglasses among themselves to prevent snow blindness.

They found a small AM transistor radio jammed between two aircraft seats. Roy Harley improvised a long antenna using electrical wire from the plane<ref name="tragedia">Template:Cite web</ref> and on the eleventh day on the mountain heard the news that their search had been called off. Piers Paul Read's book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors describes how they reacted:

Resorting to cannibalism

The survivors had very little food to eat. They found eight chocolate bars, three small jars of jam, a tin of mussels, a tin of almonds, a few dates, some candy, dried plums, and several bottles of wine. They rationed the meager supply of food but it lasted only a week. Parrado ate a single chocolate-covered peanut over three days.<ref name="live" /><ref name="Quigley" /> Far above the timber line, there was no vegetation and no animals. When the food ran out, they ate the cotton stuffing from the seats and leather from belts and shoes, which made them sick.<ref name="live" />

Knowing that rescue efforts had been called off and facing certain death from starvation, the survivors gave each other permission to use their bodies for food in case they died. Left with no alternative, the survivors consumed the bodies of their deceased friends and relatives.<ref name="Vlahos" >Vlahos, James "Return to the Andes" Template:Webarchive 17 July 2006</ref><ref name="live" /> Canessa later described the decision to eat the dead:

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.<ref name="Quigley" />

In his memoir, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home (2006), Parrado wrote about this decision:

Parrado protected the bodies of his mother and sister so they would not be eaten. They dried the meat from the bodies in the sun to make it easier to eat. At first they were so disgusted by the experience that they could only eat skin, muscle and fat, but in the end they also ate hearts, lungs, and even brains.<ref name="Parrado" />

All of the passengers were Roman Catholic. Some feared eating human flesh would lead to eternal damnation. According to Read, some survivors compared it to the Eucharist, i.e. the conversion of bread and wine into the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ. Others cited John 15:13 from the Bible to justify it: 'No man hath greater love than this: That he lay down his life for his friends.'

All who survived the ordeal made the decision to eat human flesh, though not without serious reservations. Some, including Coche Inciarte and Numa Turcatti, only ate the bare minimum necessary for survival, due to their deep revulsion.<ref name="read1">Read, Piers Paul. 1972. Alive!: The story of the Andes survivors</ref> 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.<ref name="Munger"/><ref>Return From the Valley of Tears Template:Webarchive, NCRegister.</ref>

Avalanche

Close to midnight on 29 October and sixteen days after the crash, an avalanche struck the fuselage while the survivors were asleep, almost completely 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.<ref name="true" /><ref name="Munger">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The avalanche completely buried the fuselage filling it to within Template:Convert 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.<ref>Vierci, Paulo. 2022. La sociedad de la nieve, 2nd ed. pp. 176-177. Editorial Alreves, S.L., Bercelona, Spain</ref><ref name="read1"/> On the morning of 31 October they were able to dig an exit tunnel with considerable difficulty from the cockpit to the surface, only to be faced with a blizzard that made them crawl back into the fuselage. Despite the other extreme hardships that the group endured on the mountain, survivor José Luis Inciarte referred to the avalanche as the worst part of the entire 72-day ordeal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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."<ref name="true" /><ref name="live" />

With Perez dead, Daniel Fernández and cousins Eduardo and Fito Strauch assumed the leadership of the group. They took over harvesting the flesh from the deceased and distributing it for others to eat.<ref name="Vlahos" />

Before the avalanche a few survivors insisted the only way to survive would be to climb over the mountains to get help. Because the co-pilot kept repeating before he died that the aircraft had overflown Curicó, the survivors believed the Chilean countryside was closest at only a few kilometres to the west. Unbeknownst to them, they had crashed deep in the Andes mountain range and the Chilean countryside was a distant Template:Convert to the west. As the days passed, with the onset of summer the temperature rose and the snow that had buried the fuselage began to melt away.

Exploring the area surrounding the crash site

In the first few weeks after the crash, some survivors set out on brief expeditions to explore the immediate vicinity of the aircraft but they found that altitude sickness, dehydration, snow blindness, malnourishment and the extreme night-time cold made it impossible to travel any significant distance from the crash site.<ref name="safety">Template:Cite web</ref>

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, however 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 night-time cold they would have to face on the mountain.<ref name="Vlahos" /> They were also excused from carrying out the daily tasks essential to the group's survival so they could focus on training for the upcoming ordeal. At Canessa's urging, they waited the better part of a week for temperatures to increase.

The expedition aimed to head west to Chile but the large mountain on the western rim of the glacier's cirque presented a formidable obstacle so instead the team of three decided to head east. They hoped the valley would make a U-turn to the west that would lead them to Chile. On 15 November after several hours of walking Template:Convert downhill east of the fuselage, they found the tail section of the aircraft with the galley mostly intact. They also found luggage with a box of chocolates, three meat patties, a bottle of rum, bottles of Coca-Cola, cigarettes, extra clothes, comic books, some medicine and, most importantly, the aircraft's batteries. They decided to seek shelter for the night inside the tail section, started a fire to stay warm, and stayed up late reading comic books.<ref name="Vlahos" />

The next morning they continued descending to the east, but on the second night of the expedition they nearly froze to death. They decided to return to the tail section and bring the batteries to the fuselage. They hoped they could power the radio and make an SOS call to Santiago for help.<ref name="live" />

Radio inoperative

Upon returning to the tail, the trio found that the Template:Convert batteries were far too heavy to carry back to the fuselage, an uphill climb in the deep snow from the tail section. Instead they decided it would be better to return to the fuselage, disconnect the radio, and bring it back to the tail section where the batteries were. Roy Harley used his knowledge as an amateur electronics enthusiast to assist in the process. Unbeknownst to them, the aircraft's avionics required 115 Volt AC power while the battery from the tail section only supplied 24 Volt DC,<ref name="tragedia" /> thus dooming their plan from the start.

They gave up after several days of not being able to make the radio work and returned to the fuselage realizing they would have to climb out of the mountains on their own terms to get help if they were to have any chance of surviving. Along the way they were struck by another blizzard. Harley lost faith and stopped, expecting to die, but Parrado helped him back to the fuselage.<ref name="Vlahos" />

Last three deaths

Arturo Nogueira died on 15 November and three days later, Rafael Echavarren also died, both from their infected wounds. Numa Turcatti, whose extreme revulsion against eating human flesh dramatically accelerated his physical decline, died on day 60 (11 December). He was the last victim of the crash. The remaining survivors knew they would all die if they did not leave soon to get help.<ref name="live" /> The survivors heard on the transistor radio that the Uruguayan Air Force had resumed searching for them.<ref name="historia" />

Expedition to Chile to get help

The route out. The dotted green line follows Parrado and Canessa's route westward, with Mount Seler located where it crosses with the dotted red line. They trekked about Template:Convert over 10 days.

Making a sleeping bag

The remaining survivors came to the realization that the only way out was to climb over the mountains on the western rim of the glacier's cirque, and that such a climb was impossible unless they found a way to survive the freezing night-time temperatures they would find at elevation. They fashioned a sleeping bag with insulation from the rear of the fuselage, electrical wire and the waterproof fabric that covered the plane's air conditioning unit.<ref name="Paez" /><ref name="live" /> Parrado described in his book, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, how they came up with the idea of making a sleeping bag:

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.<ref name="live">Template:Cite web</ref>

Climbing the western peak

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 Template:Convert, when they were actually at Template:Convert.<ref name="natlgeo1" /> They also believed, based on the co-pilot's dying words, that they had overflown Curicó, near the western edge of the Andes. They thought the closest help lay due west. As a result, they only brought along a three-day supply of meat for the three of them.<ref name="historia" /> Parrado wore three pairs of jeans, three sweaters over a polo shirt and four pairs of socks wrapped in a plastic shopping bag.<ref name="live" />

They had no rock climbing gear, no area map, no compass and no climbing experience. On 12 December 1972, Parrado, Canessa and Vizintín began climbing out of the glacier at an elevation of Template:Convert. Instead of climbing the somewhat lower ridge to the south, they headed straight up the steep 30-60º headwall slope of the mountain ridge.<ref name="home" /> They thought they could climb the ridge top in a day. Parrado took the lead with the other two often asking him to slow down. The thin oxygen-poor air made climbing difficult. During certain sections of the climb, they sank up to their hips in the summer-softened snow.<ref name="live" /><ref name="natlgeo1">Peña, Ricardo; Vlahos, James (December 2005). Expedition I. National Geographic. Template:Webarchive.</ref>

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.<ref name="historia" />

Reaching the ridge top

On the third morning after starting out, Canessa stayed back at the camp site. Vizintín and Parrado reached the base of a nearly vertical Template:Convert wall. The wall was covered with snow and ice. Parrado used a stick he brought along to carve steps in the ice wall. He reached the Template:Convert ridge before Vizintín. Believing he would see the green valleys of Chile to the west, he was stunned when he was faced with seemingly unending snow-capped mountain peaks extending in every direction. Vizintín and Parrado descended and rejoined Canessa as the sun set. They sipped cognac from a bottle they had found in the tail section of the aircraft and Parrado said: "Roberto, can you imagine how beautiful this would be if we were not walking dead?"<ref name="home" />

They realized their rescue-seeking expedition was going to take much longer than they had anticipated. They decided that Vizintín should return to base camp so the other two might have enough food to complete their journey. Vizintín's return was entirely downhill and he used an aircraft seat as a makeshift sleigh to make it back down to base camp within the hour.<ref name="historia" /><ref name="natlgeo1" />

From their bivouac spot the night before, Parrado and Canessa took three hours to climb to the Template:Convert ridge. When they reached the top and only saw snow-capped mountains in every direction, Canessa thought, "We're dead!".<ref name="live" /> 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."<ref name="home" /> Parrado saw two lower peaks near the western horizon that were clear of snow, with the valley at the foot of their mountain slowly winding its way towards those peaks. Parrado was sure the valley was the way out of the mountains and refused to give up hope. They followed the ridge towards the valley for a considerable distance as they descended.<ref name="home">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Finding help

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, where they found the source of Río San José, leading to Río Portillo, which meets Río Azufre at Los Maitenes. They continued descending along the river and reached the snowline.<ref name="live" /><ref name="historia" /> Gradually they started seeing ever more signs of human life: first, an empty soup can, and finally, on the ninth day, some cows.<ref>Day by day Template:Webarchive Spanish</ref>

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:<ref name="live" /><ref name="historia" />

Template:Ill, a Chilean arriero, read the note and made signs that he understood. One of the arrieros remembered that several weeks ago an acquaintance had asked if they had heard about the airplane that crashed in the Andes. The arrieros could not imagine that anyone would still be alive. Catalán threw a loaf of bread to the two men across the river and rode due west for ten hours to get help.<ref name=scbio>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="live" /><ref name="historia" />

During the trip Catalán ran into another arriero on the south bank of the Azufre river and asked him to ride towards the survivors and take them to the Los Maitenes village. Catalán then followed the river to its junction with the Tinguiririca river, crossed a bridge and followed the narrow route to the holiday resort of Termas del Flaco. There he hailed a truck that took him to the police station at the village of Puente Negro where the police relayed news of the survivors to the Chilean Army 19th Infantry Regiment "Colchagua" in San Fernando, who in turn contacted Army headquarters in Santiago.<ref name="live" /><ref name="historia" />

In the meantime Parrado and Canessa arrived on horseback at Los Maitenes where they were fed and allowed to rest.<ref name="live" /> Canessa had lost half of his body weight since the plane crash and weighed Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="historia" />

The men had climbed the Template:Convert from the crash site to the western ridge of the glacier's cirque at Template:Convert.<ref name="natlgeo1" /> After crossing the ridge, they descended Template:Convert over ten days, traveling Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="live" />

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.<ref name="historia" /> A flood of international reporters hiked several kilometers from Puente Negro to Termas del Flaco. The reporters clamored to interview Parrado and Canessa about the crash and their survival.<ref name="tragedia" />

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.<ref name="tragedia" />

The two helicopters arrived at the crash site on the afternoon of 22 December 1972. The steep terrain only permitted the pilot to touch down with a single skid. Due to the altitude and weight limits, the two helicopters were able to take only half of the survivors. Four of the rescuers volunteered to stay behind with the remaining eight survivors for their last night on the mountain.<ref name="tragedia" /> The second flight of helicopters arrived the following morning at daybreak. The last remaining survivors were rescued on 23 December 1972, more than two and a half months after the crash.<ref name="britannica">Template:Cite web</ref> The survivors were taken to hospitals in Santiago for evaluation and were treated for altitude sickness, dehydration, frostbite, broken bones, scurvy and malnutrition.<ref name="tragedia" />

Normally the search and rescue team would have also recovered the remains of the dead for burial. However, because recovery would have had to be made from Argentine soil, the Chilean rescuers decided to leave the bodies behind until Argentine authorities decided how to proceed. The Chilean military photographed the bodies and mapped the crash site before returning to Chile.<ref name="Quigley" />

Shorter route

On 13 December, their second day climbing the mountain, Canessa thought he saw a line along the valley to the east, and believed it to be a road. He tried to persuade Parrado to head in that direction, but Parrado thought the idea was crazy and would not consider it.<ref name="historia" /> Based on the information they had, believing the plane had already crossed the border into Chile, they chose to go west. They later learned that the road Canessa had seen to the east of the crash site might have allowed them to reach a lower altitude sooner.Template:Citation needed

However, according to Juan Ulloa, an Argentinian guide who hiked Canessa and Parrado's route multiple times, they ultimately made the right choice despite the longer distance. Ulloa speculates that both men would have died had they pivoted east, due to the increased number of obstacles, which included abysses.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Timeline

Day	Date	Events and deaths	Dead	Missing	Alive
Day 0	12 October (Thu)	Departed Montevideo, Uruguay			45
Day 1	13 October (Fri)	Departed Mendoza, Argentina 2:18Template:Nbspp.m. Crashed at 3:34Template:Nbspp.m. Fell from aircraft, missing: Gastón Costemalle* (law student) Alexis Hounié* (veterinary student) Guido Magri* (agronomy student) Joaquín Ramírez (flight attendant) Ramón Martínez (navigator) Daniel Shaw* (cattle rancher) Carlos Valeta (prep student) Died in crash or soon thereafter: Colonel Julio César Ferradas (pilot) Dr. Francisco Nicola (team physician) Esther Horta Pérez de Nicola (wife of team physician) Eugenia Dolgay Diedug de Parrado (Fernando "Nando" and Susana Parrado's mother) Fernándo Vázquez (business student)	5	7	33
Day 2	14 October (Sat)	Died during first night: Francisco "Panchito" Abal* Felipe Maquirriain (literature student) Julio Martínez-Lamas* (engineering student) Lt. Col. Dante Héctor Lagurara (co-pilot) Graziela Augusto Gumila de Mariani (wedding guest)	10	7	28
Day 9	21 October (Sat)	Died: Susana Parrado (Fernando "Nando" Parrado's sister)	11	7	27
Day 12	24 October (Tue)	Found deceased: Gastón Costemalle* Alexis Hounié* Guido Magri* Joaquín Ramírez Ramón Martínez	16	2	27
Day 17	29 October (Sun)	Avalanche kills eight: Sgt. Carlos Roque (aircraft mechanic) Daniel Maspons* Juan Carlos Menéndez (law student) Liliana Navarro Petraglia de Methol (wife of Javier Methol) Gustavo "Coco" Nicolich* (veterinary student) Marcelo Pérez* (rugby team captain) Enrique Platero* (farming student) Diego Storm (medical student)	24	2	19
Day 34	15 November (Wed)	Died: Arturo Nogueira* (cartography student)	25	2	18
Day 37	18 November (Sat)	Died: Rafael Echavarren (dairy farming student)	26	2	17
Day 60	11 December (Mon)	Died: Numa Turcatti (law student)	27	2	16
Day 61	12 December (Tues)	Parrado, Canessa and Vizintin set off on final expedition to the west to find help	27	2	16
Day 62	13 December (Wed)	Found deceased: Daniel Shaw*	28	1	16
Day 63	14 December (Thu)	Found deceased: Carlos Valeta	29		16
Day 64	15 December (Fri)	Antonio Vizintin returns to the fuselage	29		16
Day 69	20 December (Wed)	Parrado and Canessa encounter Sergio Catalán	29		16
Day 70	21 December (Thu)	Fernando "Nando" Parrado* and Roberto Canessa* rescued	29		16
Day 71	22 December (Fri)	6 people rescued: José Pedro Algorta Daniel Fernández* José "Coche" Luis Inciarte Álvaro Mangino Carlos Páez Rodríguez Eduardo Strauch	29		16
Day 72	23 December (Sat)	8 people rescued: Alfredo "Pancho" Delgado Roberto "Bobby" François Roy Harley* Javier Methol Ramón "Moncho" Sabella Adolfo "Fito" Strauch* Antonio "Tintin" Vizintín* Gustavo Zerbino*	29		16

Survivors

• Template:Ill (economics student)
• Roberto Canessa* (medical student)
• Alfredo "Pancho" Delgado (law student)
• Daniel Fernández (Strauch)* † (agronomy student)<ref name=Daniel25>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Roberto "Bobby" François
• Roy Harley* (engineering student)
• José "Coche" Luis Inciarte†<ref name=Coche23>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Álvaro Mangino†<ref name=alvaro25>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Javier Methol†<ref name=javier15>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Nando Parrado*
• Carlos Páez Rodríguez*
• Ramón "Moncho" Sabella
• Adolfo "Fito" Strauch
• Template:Ill
• Antonio "Tintin" Vizintín*
• Gustavo Zerbino* (medical student)

* Rugby player
† 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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,<ref name="Quigley" /> who reported that the survivors had resorted to eating the flesh of those who died in order to survive.<ref>Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Template:ISBN p. 288</ref>

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.<ref name="historia" >Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="cannibal">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Piers" /> A Roman Catholic priest heard the survivors' confessions and reassured them they were not going to be damned for it, given the in extremis nature of their survival situation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The news of their survival, and what they were forced to resort to, drew world-wide attention and developed into a media circus.<ref name="Vlahos" /> Pope Paul VI sent a telegram to the survivors sanctioning the consumption.<ref name="Daily Kos 2022 x727">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Rome Reports 2024 v613">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="France 24 2022 q960">Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name="Quigley" /> Twelve men and a Chilean priest were taken to the crash site on 18 January 1973. Family members were not allowed to attend. They dug a grave Template:Convert from the aircraft fuselage at a location they deemed protected from avalanches.<ref name="Quigley" /> They built a simple stone altar near the grave and placed an orange iron cross on its top. They also made a memorial out of a pile of rocks they gathered and placed a plaque on it with the inscription:<ref name="memoria">Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name="memoria" />

Ricardo Echavarren, the father of one of the victims, received word from a survivor that his son had wished to be buried at home. Unable to obtain official permission from Argentine authorities to retrieve his son's body, Echavarren hired guides and mounted an illegal expedition of his own. He had arranged with the priest who had buried his son to mark the body bag with his son's remains. Upon returning to the abandoned Hotel Termas El Sosneado, he was arrested for grave robbery. A federal judge and the local mayor interceded to secure his release and Echavarren was later authorized to make funeral arrangements for his son.<ref name="Quigley" />

Legacy

Hikers at the memorial dedicated to crash victims and survivors

The survivors' courage under life-threatening conditions has been described as "a beacon of hope to [their] generation, showing what can be accomplished with persistence and determination in the face of unsurpassable odds when we set our minds to attain a common goal."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref name=opp>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=dys>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref name=quotepv>Template:Cite book</ref>

The sculpture of Template:Ill, 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="lared21">Template:Cite web</ref>

Family members of victims founded Fundación Viven<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in 2006 in order to preserve the legacy of the Andes crash, the memory of the victims, and to support organ donation.<ref name="lared21" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The story of the crash is the focus of the Andes Museum 1972, which opened in 2013 in Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name=scbio/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Catalán died in 2020 at the age of 91.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=scbio/>

Site tours

The crash site attracts hundreds of visitors from all over the world each year. Several tour companies offer excursions to the site that pay tribute to the victims and survivors and how they managed to survive.<ref name="tour" /> The trip to the site takes three or four days. Four-wheel drive vehicles take visitors from the village of El Sosneado in Mendoza to Puesto Araya near the abandoned Hotel Termas el Sosneado. From there, travelers either continue on horseback or walk for three days to reach the crash site. They spend their first night in the Valley of Tears at the El Barroso camp site. On the third day, they reach the Las Lágrimas glacier and the crash site.<ref name="tour">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Cuánto sale una excursión al Valle de las Lágrimas, lugar donde está el avión de 'La sociedad de la nieve' (Spanish)</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This film appeared on PBS Independent Lens as "Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors" in May 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Feature films

Survivors Canessa, Páez Rodríguez and Parrado (from the left) attend the 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.,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and based on Clay Blair's 1973 unauthorized account,<ref>Survive!</ref> Survive!<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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,<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> and 11 of the survivors visited the set during the production.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 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,<ref name="cameos">Template:Cite web</ref> and premiered on Netflix on 4 January 2024.<ref name="biggest">Template:Cite web</ref> It won 12 awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the 38th Goya Awards,<ref name="Goyawinners">Template:Cite web</ref> 6 awards at the 11th Platino Awards,<ref name=platinowinners>Template:Cite web</ref> and was nominated for 2 Academy Awards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Podcasts

• Sarah Marshall and Blair Braverman chronicled the story in the podcast You're Wrong About in October 2022 for its Halloween episode.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• "Lost in an icy hell: my 72 day mountain escape"<ref>"Lost in an icy hell: my 72 day mountain escape"</ref> chronicles the story in an interview with survivor Nando Parrado as part of the BBC's podcast series Lives Less Ordinary,<ref>Lives Less Ordinary</ref> hosted by Asya Fouks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Part II – Buried Alive",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and "Part III – Still Alive".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of accidents involving sports teams
• List of incidents of cannibalism

Further reading

Books and articles

By survivors and parents:

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

By journalists:

• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book The 1993 film, Alive, is an adaptation of this book.
• Template:Cite book Originally published in Spanish in 2008 as La Sociedad de la Nieve: Por Primera Vez Los 16 Sobrevivientes Cuentan la Historia Completa. The 2023 film, Society of the Snow, is an adaptation of this book.

External links

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