After the air crash, 16 survivors miraculously survived in the ice and snow, what survived for 72 days? What exactly have they been through?
On October 13, 2012, Uruguay and Chile played a senior amateur rugby match played by all over 60 years old, and the reason why such a special match was organized to commemorate the unforgettable air crash 40 years ago. Most of these elderly Uruguayan rugby players were survivors of the crash.
Fast forward 40 years, in 1972, when a Uruguayan university rugby team accepted an invitation to travel to Santiago, Chile, for a friendly match against England's Old Boys rugby team. Since commercial flights from Uruguay to Chile are expensive, they chose to hire a military transport aircraft to save money. Since there were still a lot of people on the plane, the team members were told that they could bring their families with them. For this God-given opportunity, the team members brought their families one after another. Among them, Parado, the main team, brought his mother and sister. But the impending disaster made him regret this decision for the rest of his life.
On the first day, extreme weather near the Andes forced the plane to land at Mendoza airport in Argentina.
Because the U.S.-built Fairchild FH-227D military transport aircraft leased by the team could not fly over the main peak of the Andes due to its own limited altitude defects, the pilot chose to bypass the main peak. After planning the route,
The next day, on October 13, 1972, the plane was ready to depart again, and although Mendoza airport staff warned them that flying was still risky, the pilot insisted on taking off at noon that day, ignoring the warning.
Before takeoff, the passengers were extremely excited, and the young players even took out rugby balls to frolic in the plane. Everyone is full of anticipation. As everyone knows, death has come.
Soon, planes were passing through the Andes
When encountering strong air currents, the fuselage was severely bumped, and gradually deviated from the course and hit the mountain. In an instant, the plane fell apart. More than a dozen passengers, including the pilot and Parado's mother, were killed on the spot. The fuselage that lost its wing glided a long distance in the snow and eventually stopped. Fortunately, there was a thick snow cushion, and the plane did not explode, so some passengers miraculously survived. Among them are captain Marcelo, the main player Parado and his sister.
Captain Marcelo immediately summoned the surviving team to form a rescue team, rescued all the people trapped in the cabin, and gave simple treatment to the wounded. One of the team members, Enrique, was seriously injured by a steel pipe piercing his abdomen, and part of his intestines fell out, but the strong Enrique endured his pain and also participated in the rescue.
When all the team members were rescued, the captain began to count the number, and there were 45 passengers before departure, 5 died, 7 missing, and only 33 survived. This includes many of the more seriously injured players.
Although the Grim Reaper did not take them away for the time being, it does not mean that these people are lucky. In addition to death, they also face despair. They are surrounded by nothing but stumps and broken arms and the endless Andean snow-capped mountains. At this time, it is winter, at an altitude of 3,500 meters in the Andes, the air is thin, every breath is difficult, coupled with extremely low temperatures, the survivors face severe to almost desperate survival challenges, and they may die at any time.
Soon, they faced the first challenge, at night, the temperature plummeted to minus 30 degrees Celsius, the team members hid in the cabin, put all the things they could wear on their bodies, and blocked the break of the plane with suitcases, but it was still cold, in order to keep warm they burned everything they could on the plane, newspapers, magazines... It also includes $7,500 in cash. But these are things that are not tolerant to burn, which brings them a moment of warmth. In this way, with strong perseverance, I survived the first night with trembling and trembling. The next day, counting the number of people, five more people froze to death.
In addition to the cold, the tougher challenge is food. Especially at such cold high altitudes, the human body needs a lot of high-calorie food to maintain body temperature. Two days later, they suddenly felt hungry, only to realize that due to panic, they had not eaten in the past two days. The team gathered all the food they could eat, and apart from tobacco and alcohol, there was very little food that could satisfy their hunger. There were only 8 chocolates, 3 jars of jam, a jar of almonds, some sweets and a few bottles of wine. Under the arrangement of the captain, the distribution plan of these foods was carried out, and each person could only receive a small amount of food every day.
In the weeks that followed, 12 more people died of wound infections, avalanches and starvation. In order to save himself, Parrádo and two other able-bodied teammates formed a rescue daredevil squad and walked out of the Andes with amazing perseverance, and finally found rescue. Later, despite his weak body, Parado insisted on following the rescue team back to the scene of the incident. All 16 survivors were rescued after an infertile 72 days.
This legendary experience has been dubbed the "Andean Miracle" and the world is thrilled by it.
Amid excitement, the media questioned how the survivors survived a full 72 days despite a desperate lack of food. At first, the survivors were silent, unwilling to answer. But as the news continued to dig deeper, some members began to endure the torment in their hearts and finally told the truth of the matter...