According to a report, all 16 survivors of the 1972 Andes plane crash gathered for the 50th anniversary.
Uruguayan Flight 571 was supposed to take a team of amateur rugby players and their supporters to Chile. Instead, it crashed and pinned survivors for 72 days in the mountain range, forcing them to eat human flesh to stay alive.
“Of course, the idea of eating human flesh was terrible, repulsive,” Ramon Sabella, 70, told the Sunday Times in London. “It was hard to put in your mouth. But we got used to it.”
Sabella recalled the choice made by the survivors when Roberto Canessa, a medical student, suggested eating the bodies of the deceased so that the rest of them survive, the Daily Mail reported.
Survivors of the miracles of Andes celebrate the 40th anniversary of the plane crash with the rugby match in Chile
Chilean army officers escort Uruguayan rugby player Fernando Parrado (center, left photo) after his arrival after he and another survivor walked from the crash site into the snow-capped Andes mountains. On the right, crash survivor Carlos Paez is rejoicing with his father after being transported by helicopter from the crash site. (Photo by Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
(Photo by Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
“(Carlos) Paez said there was no other option for the young survivors, noting for the morbidly curious that human flesh ‘doesn’t know about anything, really,'” the report said.
Paez added that it was the survivors’ duty to travel the world and share their story.
15 DEAD, 20 WOUNDED IN PRISON IN ECUADOR MASSACRE
Doctors and nurses transport two survivors of a plane crash to the Colchague regimental infirmary after their rescue. Two men walked out of the Andean desert for ten days to alert authorities that 14 of their fellow travelers were still alive and living in the snow-covered wreckage of the plane that crashed into the mountains ten weeks ago. A helicopter was dispatched to the scene and rescued six of the survivors before bad weather prevented a return flight. (Photo by Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
(Photo by Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
Forty-five passengers were on the ill-fated plane on October 13, 1972. Authorities said that during the flight, the pilot veered off course in thick fog before crashing into the snow-capped Andes mountains.
Twelve passengers were killed in the crash. Seventeen others died of their injuries and suffocation in an avalanche that occurred days later.
Desperate after more than two months in the icy peaks, Canessa and Fernando Parrado left the crash site to seek help. It was the group’s last attempt at survival.
Two survivors of the 10-week-ago crash of a chartered Uruguayan plane carrying the Old Chryse Christian Brothers rugby team from Montevideo in Chile miraculously emerged from the Andes here on December 22 and attracted help by managing to stick a note to a stone and throw it at. a farmer across a stream. The note reads: “I come from a plane that crashed in the mountains. I am Uruguayan. We have been walking for ten days. Fourteen others remain in the plane. They too are injured. They have nothing to eat and we cannot leave. We cannot go any further. . Please come and get us. ” Six other survivors were later rescued by helicopter, strong winds prevented them from returning for the remaining eight.
(Getty Images)
After 10 days of trekking, they spotted Sergio Catalan, a cattle herder in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. The conditions were such that the two could not get too close to the Catalan, but from a distance they could hear him say a word: “Tomorrow”.
“With that (word) our suffering ended,” said Canessa.
Helicopter crew members transport the survivor of the Uruguayan plane crash on October 13 on a stretcher to the helipad of the Santiago Central Emergency Station. The survivor, one of the 16, was flown to the capital directly from the crash site in the Andes. (Photo by Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
(Photo by Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
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Survivors are listed as: Roberto Canessa, Fernando Parrado, Carlos Rodriguez, Jose Algorta, Alfredo Delgado, Daniel Fernandez, Roberto Francios, Roy Harley, Jose Inciarte, Alvaro Mangino, Javier Methol, Ramon Sabella, Adolfo Strauch, Eduardo Strauch, Antonio Vizintia and Gustavo Zerbino.
A new Netflix adaptation of their story is in the works.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
