Eat your own to survive: the tragic story of an incredible rescue

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

When a person finds himself in extreme situations, then all conversations about nobility and humanity are forgotten, and the instinct of self-preservation comes to the fore. The tragic story took place more than 40 years ago, when the survivors of a terrible plane crash had to eat the flesh of their dead comrades for two months.

On October 13, 1972, a tragedy occurred that was destined to go down in history. The plane carrying the rugby team from Uruguay to Chile crashed in the snowy Andes. Of the 45 people on board, 12 lost their lives immediately, and five more died the next day. The rest awaited a cruel fate.

The conditions in which the survivors found themselves were dire. They had practically no food or warm clothing. Plus, it was hard to breathe in the highlands. At first, people expected to be rescued. They even saw a plane circling in the sky above them. But help never came. On the 8th day, the survivors were horrified to hear on the radio that all rescue operations were ending.

The feeling of hunger was more terrible than the cold. One of the passengers, Roberto Canessa, suggested eating the dead in order to survive on their own. At first, everyone was horrified by the proposal, but after a few days of hunger, this thought no longer seemed so blasphemous. Canessa still recalls how his hands were shaking when he cut off the first piece of human flesh with a razor.

On the 18th day after the accident, an avalanche descended on the wreckage of the plane. As strange as it may sound, she saved people's lives. Not everyone … 8 more died. Thanks to the snow, it was not so cold inside the plane, and the survivors had new food.

A month later, several volunteers decided to check how far they could get from the crash site in order to get back in a day. Then they accidentally found on their way a detached tail of an aircraft, in which there were suitcases with clothes, a box of chocolates and batteries. Returning, the men tried to fix the radio, but nothing came of it.

After 2 months from the day of the crash, only 16 people remained alive. Three of them decided at all costs to look for a way out to people. December 12, 1972 Roberto Canessa, Nando Parrado and Antonio Visintin hit the road. When the men began to descend, it became warmer, but then another problem arose: the meat began to deteriorate. In 10 days they covered 65 km. Fortunately, they noticed a mountain stream and a cow beside it. After another day of walking, only two came out to the river. On the opposite bank, they saw a man. The travelers shouted, but because of the rumbling of the water, they could not hear each other. Then the man on the other side of the river (it turned out to be the shepherd Sergio Catalan) tied a paper and a pencil to a stone and threw it to the men. They wrote who they were and where they came from. The shepherd threw a piece of bread and cheese to Nando and rode off on horseback for help.

A day later, 6 people from the nearest military garrison arrived at the travelers, and then a helicopter with journalists arrived. No one could believe that the men went this way on their own when they showed where the plane was.

Meanwhile, at the crash site, the rest of the survivors heard on the radio about the discovery of two men. The feelings that they then experienced could not be conveyed in words. 16 "lucky ones" of that accident are still alive. They gather every year to honor the memory of all those who died in that terrible disaster. Mountains are not predictable, and they do not forgive weaknesses. Another proof of this was the tragic ascent of a female group of Soviet climbers, from which no one returned alive.