Seventy-two days of surviving in the Andes.

The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, a story primarily about pilot error resulting in many deaths, is also about extreme survival. Also known as Miracle Flight 571, a chartered flight from Montevideo, Uruguay, set for Santiago, Chile, carrying 40 passengers and five crew members, crashed into the Andes mountains on October 13th, 1972.

Those who survived the impact weren’t rescued. In fact, they were lost for 72 days in -30 degree temperatures, at an extremely high altitude and with little to no food, while the rest of the world thought they were dead. This is their story.

The Uruguayan Air Force Fairchild FH-227D, which was four years old in 1972, was chartered by the Old Christians Club rugby union team to take its members and family to play a match against the English Old Boys Club in Santiago. On October 12th, the twin-engine turboprop departed from Montevideo Airport, but the team stopped in Argentina for the night due to a storm.

The next day, the aircraft left at 14:18, and the pilots decided to fly a course south to the Pass of Planchón, Britannica explained. Pilot Julio Ferradas, who had flown across the Andes 29 times, was training a co-pilot, Dante Lagurara.

At 15:21, a little after clearing the Pass, Laguara expected to reach Curicó within a minute and was ready to descend; however, air traffic controllers were concerned as it usually takes 11 minutes, but it took them three. Lagurara requested air controllers to descend, to which they accepted. This was the beginning of the aircraft’s deathly fate, as the pilot misjudged their position.

Instead of Curicó, the Fairchild was still deep into the Andes. Lagurara said he expected to see some turbulence, but some passengers noticed the aircraft was dangerously close to the mountains. This was when Lagurara realized it was too late. He attempted to apply maximum power to gain more altitude, but at 15:30, the aircraft struck a mountain.

It lost its right and left wing, and tail upon the impact. According to the Aviation Safety Network, the rest of the fuselage crashed and slid down a mountain for about 725 meters (2,378 ft) before hitting a glacier, later named Glacier of Tears. The wreckage halted in a remote valley in Argentina at an elevation of 3,570 meters (11,710 ft) near the Chilean border.

Instantly, 12 of the 45 people died from the crash. Later, investigations found that the leading cause was controlled flight into terrain – when an airworthy aircraft unintentionally flies into terrain, water, or an obstacle – due to pilot error.

It wasn’t long before the Chilean Air Search and Rescue Service (SARS) was notified about the missing aircraft. Four aircraft were deployed to scout the Andes until dark, but SARS personnel concluded it must have crashed into an inaccessible area of the mountain terrain.

Little did the search parties realize their aircraft had passed over the crash site multiple times, but the Fairchild had blended in with the snow. After eight days and multiple helicopters on the lookout, SARS closed its search with no success and believed all the passengers had died.

The survivors of the crash had many days ahead of them. But some didn’t. Five more passengers died on the first night, including co-pilot Lagurara. To stay warm, passengers cleared the seats from the fuselage, so it could become a shelter. Twenty-eight people fit into a tiny space to stay warm, using luggage and broken debris to keep the cold out.

Days later, one more passenger died, and the remaining survivors found a radio, which revealed that the search had been axed, leaving them with little hope.

Together, the 27 passengers shared eight chocolate bars, a tin of mussels, three jars of jam, almonds, dates, candies, dried plums, and wine. While it received much public backlash, in the end, the survivors were extremely low on food and were confronted with the reality of eating the flesh of their dead friends and family.

Roberto Canessa, who at the time was a 19-year-old medical student, wrote a book - ‘I had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives’ - and said at a book tour in Philadelphia in 2016:

“Cannibalism is when you kill someone, so technically this is what is known as anthropophagy. I’ve had these discussions for 40 years. I don’t care. We had to eat these dead bodies, and that was it. The flesh had protein and fat, which we needed, like cow meat. I was also used to medical procedures, so it was easier for me to make the first cut.”

Then, on October 29th, an avalanche hit the crash site, killing eight more people. While the avalanche trapped the remaining survivors, it kept them safe from a blizzard.

Three survivors, Nando Parrado, Antonio ‘Tintin’ Vizintin, and Canessa, decided it was time to take things into their own hands. They set out on a trek to gain an understanding of where they were – which had almost killed them – and realized they were much further into the Andes than expected.

They returned to the site, regained their strength, and after fashioning a sleeping bag from aircraft components, and three more passengers died, the men set out again to find help on December 12th.

For three days, they trekked the dangerous terrain. However, Vizintin returned to the crash site as the crew didn’t bring enough food. Finally, after Parrado and Canessa hiked for nine more days, confident they would die, they reached a valley and eventually saw men on horseback. The following day on December 22nd, the Chilean Air Force rescued half of the survivors and, on the 23rd, evacuated the rest.

The story of human survival exploded on international headlines. Multiple books have been written about the event, and even a film adaptation, called 'Alive', was released in 1993.