The Crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is morbid [Music] 2025 2025 Edition it's our first episode
it's not the first episode you're listening to in 2025 but it's our first recording from 2025 heyo it is January
3rd second second yeah it's the second check us out I woke up early I went on a walk on the treadmill this [ __ ] is in
her resolution era I made breakfast and I never make breakfast I made a new kind of breakfast for the
kids I got up early I made like a yummy little like breakfast sandwich in the oven yeah tell them about it it's like a
it's like a yummy bisc crescent roll with cheese and eggs and then I also made them a yummy lunch yeah pizza rolls
which I always make them lunch obviously but and breakfast but I made like some different ones that's that's part of my
resolution is to come up with more creative lunches for their school lunches I love that I have so many
resolutions this year and I'm going to nail all yeah we are we both are we're lousy with resolutions we are and I feel
like I don't I I'm like drawing a blank if you've had a lot of resolutions in the past I usually don't make like I'll
I'll be like Oh I'm going to eat healthier that's mine are always very nonchalant yes but this year they're
chalant I am so chalant this year I feel very chalant with my resolution we're about to be shalant as [ __ ] I got so
many just Visions for this year yeah and it's a it's not only a new year like calendar for you it's a new year of life
for you because it was just Elena's birthday it was yeah yay it's true she's like 87 now I am not 87 it's crazy I am
what I am and I that's all that you are that's all that I am byebye um yeah so we're excited it's the year of exciting
things yeah lots of things are going to evolve lots of things are going to get better yeah it's the year of like
greatness yeah we're excited 2025 yeah it's here it's here baby it's here here it's here it's here it's here it's
finally here and we've been waiting for it cuz last year was shite it was poo pooa and it wasn't even that's the thing
like last year was not complete [ __ ] no you made the New York Times bestsellers
I reached number one on the New York that's been the dream since the beginning the dawn of time I hit that I
forever happy and grateful for that that best year ever for that but it's like other stuff it was just a tough year we
were we were swimming through the weeds baby yeah it was tough so that's I like I was like waitressing again you can
never have a fully [ __ ] year or you know what I mean like there's always little
no matter what there's always blips of greatness in year of course you know this year though this year is going to
be just greatness across the board awesome hell yeah no bad no poooo Kaka no pooo Kaka like everybody manifest
greatness for yourself cuz you can do it I started listening to the secret and I
know it's like SEC woo but I'm into it okay I love that I think everyone should listen to it perfect that's perfect yeah
I'm only speaking about the things I want and the things I will have well H that's just nice it is that's not even
like woo that's just that's just nice nice a of Attraction positivity you know let's [ __ ] go girls and honestly we
need more of it in this world right now cuz shit's popping off uhhuh um but not in our not in our and this will be way
past the time now but like New Orleans we're thinking of you yes and I know we're it seems like we're we're far
delayed from what that happened probably cuz again I have no [ __ ] clue when this episode comes out but right now
it's very fresh while we were recording it I posted some stuff on my Instagram about like there's going to be some
blood donations and stuff happening I I wish we could get this out soon but you know but just know that no matter what
we're thinking of New Orleans right now um so with that being said let's get into hair toss that hair toss she just
whipped her hair out and she said with that being said and she got she got comfy to tell the cuz whenever I I do we
do a recording we both have this problem where we get so so hot so you immediately have to take a layer off I
was immediately sweating toss your curls well we figured we would start off this
you know we didn't even plan this but we're going to start the year off with a mostly Survival Story hell yeah some
people pass away in this not great very tragic this story is brutal it's tragic but it's also got this side of it that
is like really inspiring like really beautiful these people came together and took care of
each other we're talking about the crash of Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 okay you may know it as the case the live
case there's a movie about it there's a book about it um I'm sure you know it for one particular aspect of it but um
Dave and I are here to broaden your horizons to tell you more about it because that is one very big aspect of
it obviously you know the cannibalism is a big part of this but when you hear the
other [ __ ] that these people survived and the way that they like held on to each other and took care of each other
each other and just immediately went into survival mode they all like the mindset that everyone went into is like
unbelievable cuz when it's hor you have to yeah but some people can't no I could
I don't know that I could yeah it's like that and these people did it's really it's really really a fascinating case so
let's start back in 1971 the old Christians club which was an amateur Uruguayan rugby team uh they
charted a small playing to Chile to play in a championship game against the Chilean national team okay for most
members of the old Christians the trip was honestly the first time they'd ever been on a plane and the first time
they'd ever traveled far away from home oh God uh this is not when they crashed oh okay um they didn't end up winning
the championship but the trip was pretty exciting pretty fun pretty great everybody loved it so when they returned
home they were like we got to start planning another trip for the next year like this was too much fun so by the
time the next year came around the team found themselves unfortunately not in the best position like last year for
going to the Nationals okay uh they'd been a little overconfident here causing them to lose the Uruguayan championship
and this is a quote to a team they considered inferior so I think that the Cockiness got the best of them here uh
the loss made the team's officers questioned whether honestly they wanted to invest the money in a trip for what
they were considering a losing team at this point but eventually they ended up being convinced that this was a good
idea it was going to be fun it was going to be great and in the fall of 1972 the
members of the old Christians Club began planning their trip to Santiago Chile okay despite their
enthusiasm there was some problems right away the cost of charting the small Fairchild FH 227d plane from the
Uruguayan Air Force was approximately 1,00 ,600 which now is $122,000 I was going to say I feel like that today in
money that would be a lot yeah so in order to afford it they were going to have to fill all 40
seats now they only had 19 people on their team oh so that's a problem that's a big problem so they were faced with
the very real possibility of having to cancel this trip and so the members of the team started reaching out to friends
family anyone they thought might be interested in taking a trip to ch okay by the time uh the day of the
flight had arrived they had assembled a group of 40 passengers which were including family members of the team
several students visiting you know interested in visiting Chile and one woman who was traveling to attend her
daughter's wedding oh now around 6:00 a.m. on October 12th 1972 the passengers started arriving at
the Carrasco airport to board the plane everyone was super like light the mood was light you know everyone's is just
excited it's like this is a fun little trip but they soon encountered another problem one person from their group
Gilberto rulis had not arrived okay although it was a private flight and obviously they didn't have like the
strictest schedule they had been informed that the flight would need to leave as early as
possible to avoid bad weather okay so they were put behind by by him being late the flight was finally able to
leave a little after 8:00 a.m. piloted by two very experienced pilots who are actually from the Uruguayan Air Force oh
wow um but because of the late start the plane ran into the weather that made it
impossible to pass through the cordier range and into the Andes so they had to land the plane in Mendoza Argentina and
wait till the following day cuz they didn't want to go through that weather yeah smart especially going through a
mountain range yeah that could be wly now the pilots were not just concerned about the weather though there was this
like super strict regul against the Uruguayan Air Force where they couldn't spend more than 24 hours on Argentinian
soil oh [ __ ] and if they did they would get fined like seriously fined or they
would get a more serious penalty oh it's like an international incident at that point like it's not good yeah now under
those circumstances the pilots told the passengers to you know go come back to the airport by 1 pm. and we we got to
get out of here but when they arrived the pilots were nowhere to be seen instead several administrative delays
caused them to be late they ended up missing the window to leave and having to wait until the next morning oh [ __ ]
this is the flight by the way the amount of times that this got like derailed derailed when you look back on it you're
like whoa what was like was play here the next morning everyone gathered at the airport only to find that the
weather conditions over the Andes had not improved oh no but but the uruguayans were under a tight time
restriction to leave Argentina so the pilot and co-pilot Julio Caesar Fades and Dante Hector larara decided that it
was honestly better to probably face the inclement weather than risk a literal international incident yeah I can get
that I understand the the thought process there cuz they're also very experienced Pilots they're in the Air
Force like they're probably thinking okay we can get through it it's going to be turbul but we'll get through that
it's a short flight oh but it's a small plane yeah and because you know they had
to make the choice the flight left Mendoza a little after 2 p.m. okay within a few minutes the plane had
reached 18,000 ft and was cruising between 20 and 60 knots and they were thinking they were going to reach
Santiago in honestly a little under two hours it was going to be super fast wow that's a quick flight it was an older
model plane but it was equipped with an automatic direction finder also known as
an ADF in a VHF omnidirectional range both of these things were critical for keeping the flight on course and staying
in the proper airspace okay about an hour into the flight the plane reached the Ciera and larara dropped into a new
airlane and switched frequencies to put them in contact with air traffic control
in Santiago yeah so as he did this they entered a patch of dense cloud cover and
so they ascended so that they could get better visibility over it at this Point everything's going fine flight is on
schedule now at 3:21 p.m. larara radioed Santiago to inform them that they were over the pass of planchon and were about
to fly over Coro which is a small town on the west side of the andies few minutes later larara radioed again to
say the flight was making a slight right angle in order to course correct and keep on the right flight path unable to
track the flight Santiago's Air Traffic Control took the co-pilot at his word because once they go out of that flight
like he can't TR do anything yeah and he was like you know what I'm they basically air traffic control is like
he's probably been accurately tracking the flight so they authorized him to descend to 10,000 ft and they began
preparing for The Descent okay now the plane had descended 3,000 ft and again it was going to be um descending 10,000
ft yeah so it went down 3,000 ft when they shifted from one air current to another and that caused the plane to
jump and Shake as it moved to one from that current can I just say I give you so much credit for telling the story as
somebody with a fear of flying now the reason I am okay with this is one we have different regulations and two this
is a smaller plane yeah and three it's flying very close to a mountain range and I have no plans to do that yeah um
larara turned on the seat Bel signs and directed the passengers to go back to their seats just to avoid any injuries
during the turbulence and a minute or two later the plane lurched and dropped several hundred feet cuz it it hit an
air pocket oh I think we've all kind of been in that scenario where it hits an air pocket and it just goes yep I'm not
horrifying I can get in the vibe now that like turbulence won't make you fall out of the sky and like it's just
Jello-O air pockets can go [ __ ] themselves cuz that has happened to me and I thought I was like this is it yeah
like it's just it's the worst feeling that shit's scary in the world to me yeah oh not fun and this one the several
hundred feet drop the passengers were all very alarmed like they were panicked a little bit now the the young men on
the rugby team started to chant hoping that the words would distract the other passengers from this like panicked
moment I'm not going to lie I would [ __ ] hate that I would hate that so much I think they were doing it thinking
like just listen to us just listen to us like don't pay attention to what's happening they're like that's sweet and
when when you hear what they do like you're like you're just like damn like you guys were just thank goodness it was
you guys who had to like help each other you know what I mean like you were all there for each other now most of the
members of the rugby team and the others who joined in their chant could not see
out the window so they assumed turbulence was just you know this is bad turbulence but the people who could see
out of the window they were like something's wrong here oh no because that second bout of turbulence was
caused by the air pocket and it caused the plane to again drop out of the cloud cover that they had Tre been above
before right and so they could look out the window and see that they weren't seeing you know Chilean Villages
thousands of feet below them like they should have seen cuz they were descending they saw the edges of the
snow covered Andes about 10 ft from the tip of the wing oh no that's what I'm talking about
they were not supposed to be there like this was not supposed to be happening they 10 ft from the tip of the wing they
see the mountain dude like what do you how do you come to any kind of resolution in
that moment I give them all credit cuz I would have immediate Cardiac Arrest that
would be it it would be curtain for me right away like that's it I see that 10 it's gone you would think you were in a
nightmare you would' think you're were dreaming I I literally can't fathom this like my brain won't allow me to go into
this place where they had to be like I can't that's called self-preservation yes my brain is deep in
self-preservation right now not my imagination Boop turned off like during this whole thing my imagination went I'm
going to take a holiday I'll see you after you're done it erased the Whiteboard yes it went by like I don't
think any further into this yeah now the passengers felt the plane Lurch again as
the co-pilot tried to make a rapid Ascent tried to lift back up so we could get the [ __ ] out of this Mountain Valley
but it was too late the engine struggled to accommodate the ascent the right wing
tip caught the edge of the mountain sh the [ __ ] and it tore the right wing from
the plane and sent it flying back over the fuselage where it struck the tail and ripped the tail from the plane the
wing hit the tail of the plane yep and ripped it from the plane as this happened a flight attendant in a row of
three young men from the team were torn it was torn loose the whole row and they
all got sucked out of the hole just gone so three of the the people on the team and one flight
attendant were sucked right out of the hole immediately oh my God a few seconds later the left wing caught on the other
side of the mountain and it tore it that free and ripped a second hole in the fuselage then a blade from the propeller
Broke Free ripped into the fuselage and it flew behind the plane and so now the plane is flying with no tail and no
wings it's just a fuselage just like free falling so it just started hurdling towards the mountain like Free Falling
like nose diving towards the mountain my [ __ ] god it crashed into a steep valley and luckily there was deep deep
snowfall that cushioned the plane cushioned is a is probably a very like optimistic word for what happened here
but I see what you but it would have been even worse if there was no uh snowfall here damn it would later be
estimated that that plane hit the mountain going approximately 230 mph the fact that anyone survived that
is absolutely mindboggling and so many people did yeah and also they said if because it was going 230 approximately
230 M an hour when it hit the [ __ ] Mountain if it had hit the floor the ground it would have just obliterated
the fuselage there would have been nothing left of anybody or anything but because of the snow it at least
cushioned it enough that it didn't obliterate it really just the like all the stops along the way and all the
there's some kind of weird thing going on here some Vibe going on I don't know what it is but before the plane hit the
snow two more young men were ripped out of the side but the rest of the passengers were all buckled into their
seats oh man once the fuselage hit the ground the speed caused the plane to slide down the valley as it was like
losing momentum and the Crash caused tons of the rows of seats in the plane to become unsecured from the floor and
as it's flying down the valley skidding down the valley the rows are shifting forward and they crushed many of the
passengers between seats oh my God so several of the passengers who [ __ ] survived the crash were killed because
they were crushed by the twisted metal and plastic in the slide on the way down the mountains oh my and then a bunch
more got way more injured in this as well of course yeah and finally the plane came to a stop okay now Roberto
Kessa who was a medical student who' booked the cheap flight for a short vacation in Chile oh yep he was among
one of the first people to wake up in the plane cuz they were all gone like out of course in its slide down the
mountain the fuselage had shifted and come to a stop on its side so it tossed the bodies of living people and dead
people throughout the interior of the fuselage oh God so canessa quickly located his friend Daniel mass bonss and
helped to free him from his seat and then they started making their way through the plane looking for survivors
and Roberto canessa is a medical student so he's trying to think of anything he can do to help anybody yeah but when
some of the survivors made their way out of the plane for the first time they found themselves in the scariest
scenario you can possibly imagine complete isolation they were surrounded by Mountain walls on three sides stop
and then the one open side looked straight down into a valley oh God and they said it looked like it went on for
Miles like just gone there's no way out everywhere they looked they said they saw ice snow and they couldn't tell
whether it was I mean doz it was dozens and dozens of feet deep in in places yeah and because they hadn't planned on
being in any cold temperatures going to Chile from Argentina like what all of the passengers had dressed in warm
weather clothing of course so none of them were prepared for the literal subzero temperatures outside not me
packing my [ __ ] Park on every flight go on from this day forward now once outside two of the rugby team members
spotted their friend Carlos Veta and this is very sad a few yards from the plane and neither of them knew how
Carlos had come to be so far outside of the plane yeah but he seemed confused and was walking in the direction of that
steep valley and so they all called out to him hoping that their voices would bring him back towards them but it
looked like he couldn't see them he couldn't hear them and he just walked deeper and deeper into the snow and they
were terrified that he was going to slip and fall into the valley so two of them
tried to walk out there or like crawl out there to get to him but the snow was too deep and the incline was way too
Steep and so they only made it about a dozen or so feet before turning back and they all just watched helplessly as
Carlos stumbled in the snow and then he tried to stand but he slipped a second time and then he just tumbled into the
valley below oh and they just had to walk this happen that's horrific yeah like their friend just watching this
happen now back inside the plane the two medical students Robert Roberto canessa
and Gustavo Sabino they did their best to try to help the injured people but like you don't even have anything
they're medical students too like they are not doctors yet like they they only know what they know and then again like
you said they don't have any medical supplies really like and also zerbino was only in his first year of medical
school and he was studying to be a psychologist oh so he wasn't super familiar with emergency medicine he had
some knowledge yeah but he was like uh I'm yeah aside from the six passengers who'd been thrown from the plane when it
started to break apart only three others died on impact wow yeah the rest I know
the rest suffered a wide range of injuries many of which were pretty serious several people were unconscious
and many mostly all we're in a state of physical or Andor psychological shock yeah by the time one of the team members
mcho Sabella managed to reach the cockpit there was really nothing they could do to help fadus or larara the
pilot and co-pilot oh that's so sad the nose of the plane had been absolutely crushed when the plane landed in the
valley and it crushed the instrument panels into the chests of the pilot and co-pilot oh God they were still strapped
into their seats and looking through the windshield could tell that fadus was definitely already dead but larara was
was still alive and was conscious oh God at that point what do you do so they couldn't do anything like literally he
was in bad shape so there was really nothing they could do so uh Sabella grabbed several handfuls of snow and
packed them into his handkerchief just to try to like comfort larara as he died like just kind of like easing his wounds
and stuff and just like being there with him right and he just sat with him until
he died like just like comforted him wow but he had the entire instrument panel like think about a cockpit that whole
thing was crushed against him that's like you my imagination will not yeah now Nando parado was another um
passenger on the plane and the first thing he said he remembered was absolute Blackness oh he said I'm dead this is
death it's so black that this is death and he said when he woke up he had no no idea how much time had passed between
the crash and him waking up that must be so strange like so disorienting and then
he said he was so thirsty like all of a sudden he was just so thirsty so he said
if I'm dead I cannot crave water so he was like I'm alive so like okay that's my like moment so he started coming too
and he said that's when he realized his head was throbbing and everything everybody was talking around him it's
just like a cacophony of voices the stress yeah and he said when he opened his eyes he saw several of his friends
faces who were gathered around him and that's when he saw that they were surrounded by the wreckage like he had
he was like what the [ __ ] is going on so he's like okay the plane crashed uhhuh
and they explained it to him they said several passengers didn't make it and they said unfortunately including
Nando's mother Eugenia oh and his best friend panito Abal and his sister Susy was very injured and was laying nearby
on the floor cockpit oh that's awful like his whole family's there yeah and Nando remembered crawling over to where
she was laying on the floor and curling up beside her and he said I stayed with her I melted snow with my mouth and gave
her water because we didn't have anything we didn't have cups oh my God he melted snow in his
mouth to give to his dying sister that was a brother like I was just like damn Nando and unfortunately Susie would die
from her injuries on the eighth day oh my God and Nando said that he had a lot like later is when it really hit like
cuz he said what he said later was that he learned that at those moments my brain didn't react to anything that was
outside survival I couldn't cry I didn't feel sorrow yeah you're in shock and he
said they buried her alongside the others that the day after she died oh that's so sad now the next day when
Nando was able to stand and kind of walk walk he went outside for the first time
and was overwhelmed by what he saw he said I saw the magnitude of the place we're in it's immense it's huge and I
said [ __ ] this is going to be horrible how are we going to get out of here they
won't find us here I mean I don't know like how would I don't even know how they were found and well and it's worse
because he was right there was very little chance of anyone having found them on that Ridge because when the
plane failed to arrive in Santiago the Chilean air search and rescue service was alerted and they started searching
by the air but the problem was the plane had come to rest at an elevation of roughly 12,000 fet and it was tucked
into a valley which is not very visible from the air anyway and also the fuselage was white so it was just
blending into the snow and I didn't even think of that and then what's even worse
is that the search and rescue team were searching an area they believed the plane had been to based on the flight
plan oh they never knew that they had gone off course because they had just kind of trusted each other there yeah
and then all hell broke loose now in the first few days after the crash the survivors listened to updates on the
plan's radio until after 10 days they heard a report that the search was called off imagine hearing that no like
of all they've gone through and all they've been through up to this point then you hear that they're not looking
for you anymore I because you would just think I'm gonna die here and what's Wild
is they didn't lose hope here that's remarkable they somehow took this as like okay now our survival is in our
hands so we need to do it like what the [ __ ] I'm like that is I mean you go one
of two ways there the strength that like talk about the human Spirit right there
like damn team building like the fact that they're just like okay so they're not looking for us anymore now we got to
do it we're the only people who can get us out of here it's now Ramon Sabella said thinking of the suffering that must
have caused our families at home made us even more determined to survive so knowing that the search was called off
and knowing their families were probably devastated they were like now we got to
get the [ __ ] out of here and of course none of the survivors had any idea where
they were or which direction that Civilization even was and then you must be so scared to go in the wrong
direction to end up even further lost exactly now the first week or so on the mountain was spent taking stock of their
resources stabilizing the injured and rein forcing what very little shelter they had inside the plane but those with
that were physically able to spent most of their time doing their best to cover the holes in the side of the plane to
keep out the Subzero wind um and then they also were piling and packing snow to create a barrier from the elements
and since it was supposed to be a short trip with a small number of people there
weren't many resources to even be had in that plane Chile has a warm climate like
we were talking about so no one had clothing for cold weather and other than some candy and other small snacks there
was no food on board and they couldn't find the luggage the luggage was nowhere to be found um the environment also
offered very little in that respect they were not going to find food out here it
was freezing cold super desolate other than some roots and some Highly Questionable berries which they
definitely all found out there was very little to eat out there oh man what they
did have though was snow in every [ __ ] Direction so at least they thought they were like okay well we're
not going to dehydrate yeah like we always have water we can always just eat snow and melt snow how long can you go
without food how many days I got to Google it I don't know how many days you can go I don't I can't remember which
one is longer it's it's definitely food it's food right yeah you can go longer without food than water I think you
dehydrate Wicked quick yeah that's yeah it says so the body's response to not eating can be broken down into three
phases phase one the body uses its stored glucose and glycogen which usually happens within 24 hours then
phase two your body breaks down fat to create glucose and Ketone bodies to fuel the brain which we were just saying
these are athletes they don't have a high body fat percentage and then phase three the body breaks down muscle tissue
to convert amino acids to glucose this phase is called protein wasting and can be fatal if protein loss is over 50%
damn that's crazy and just think of how weak you would feel and you're just trying to literally survive in the snow
thing like that was like a to them it was a blessing they were like we are surrounded by snow we will not dehydrate
that is like one of the biggest problems that we would have had yes solved so at
least we have that and they're all like it's again the way they're looking at the situation like these people had the
best mindset you could possibly imagine um but it also became kind of a curse because the snow kept them hydrated but
the temperature of the snow made it difficult to consume at all it would burn their mouths and throats it was so
cold oh God now the days were obviously exhausting they were challenging but the
nights I can't imagine the nights were brutal cuz it's so much colder yeah those anybody who was you know feeling
strong physically or honestly like mentally did their best to keep up the spirits of those that were injured and
those who' lost hope you know they were trying to make them believe that they could get out of here they would tell
them stories to pass the time they would just sing to distract them like anything
and with nothing but the cloth from the seats to protect them from the cold all of the survivors huddled close to one
another during the night just like in one big pile in the fuselage oh God like relying on body heat to keep them from
freezing and during the night their clothing and hair would freeze like every single night and they would take
turns punching each other's arms and legs to improve circulation oh my God and when they became too exhausted to
punch to actually hit each other they would then get as close as possible to each other and just try to breathe like
hot breath on each other wow that's a [ __ ] nightmare like what like just to take care of your
fellow human like that though yeah like and just not give up like wow and within
a few weeks everything that he had even remotely passed as food had been eaten gone yeah and the remaining survivors
were looking at starvation they were like we might die of star we survived this far and we're going to starve to
death out here and in the days immediately following the crash they struck they stuck to very strict rations
for everyone a scrap of and they said um from alive uh which is a very interesting book I highly recommend it
we'll definitely um Link Link in the show notes uh they said a scrap of chocolate a capful of wine and a
teaspoon of jam or tinned fish every for the day wow and when that ran out some tried to
eat the leather straps from any of the seats or luggage that they like pieces that they could find but they couldn't
eat it no now it was Nando parado who first suggested that they consider eating the meat from the bodies of the
dead he later said I didn't have any doubts I had arrived at the conclusion of my thoughts very clearly no doubt
this is the only way out I mean what else are you going to eat and if you're determined to survive at that point
there is no part of my dumbass that's gonna sit here and say to you that after weeks after a [ __ ] plane crash that I
survived on the [ __ ] Andes that I'm not going to think about eating a dead body I'm not going to sit here with any
kind of [ __ ] like and it's also like you're kind of in the perfect equation because they're not only they're
preserved presed because of the snow and what what are you going else do you do what do you do at this point like I get
it I get what they it's totally fine if you know if you don't but yeah I just can't presume to say that I would oh I
would certainly not do that like I don't [ __ ] know I hope I never have to know
that none of us know because we weren't there and we haven't like sounds like an
awful experience yeah the worst kind of experience I can possibly conjure and can't even in my brain and think of the
hungriest you've ever been and then multiply that by six gajillion literally like no you have to eat yeah you're
going to lose your [ __ ] mind otherwise exactly and like you said they had not begun to decompose cuz they were
laying out and other than you know there being quite a strong social taboo around
cannibalism there was really no other argument that everybody had like everybody was like that's really it's
all really just like ethical kind of thing like moral stuff which would be hard I'm sure to of course I can't even
fathom this discussion find yourself in that situation can't even fathom this discussion but I get why it got brought
up uhhuh um and again not a lot and this decision was not made lightly either like these people did not just go like
oh [ __ ] why don't we eat our friends like not what they did it's everybody's family members and friends like they did
not come to this as just like whatever we might as well like this is desperation yeah and
self-preservation and Roberto canessa led the discussion and he very much argued his point from his position as a
medical student he said to them it is meat that's all it is the souls have left their bodies earon in heaven With
God all that is left here are the carcasses which are no more human beings than the dead flesh of the cattle we eat
at home I mean I get and I mean he's just coming from like a very clinical logical point of view and be like these
are not your loved ones your loved ones aren't in these shells anymore right now
once the suggestion was raised to the rest of the survivors the group spent nearly an entire day discussing it among
themselves before doing anything and then finally after several several hours all remaining survivors agreed that they
had little Choice other choice if they wanted to live cuz what else are they going to do in the years after the
rescue again like I said before this aspect of the story dominated The Narrative and it overshadowed nearly
every other part of their ordeal of course which again I know it's shocking I'm shocked by it I'm fascinated by it
like of course that's the one part where you go oh but holy [ __ ] there's so many
other things that they did for each other and to survive this that is like also unbelievably incredibly like
remarkable outside of my realm of comprehension but it was the key to their survival at this point and it was
again only a small part of the story that this story that has so many other things that definitely need to be known
for sure uh pado later said every body in that situation you would have arrived at the same thought and it's easier than
you think yeah cuz he's probably like when you're that hungry that's the thing I IM just thinking like I said of the
hungriest I've ever been and then multiplying it to like the nth degree think of that stomach ache you get when
you are hungry and it hurt like it feels you feel empty so they all also made a Packa with each other that should any of
them die before being rescued their bodies were to be used as food to help the others survive wow so they all made
a [ __ ] act with each other that if I don't survive this you're going to survive it because you're going to use
my meat wow what a sentence my brain like won't I just can't fathom the ultimate dis it
is like and it's just like and to have to have that discussion and to if you die out here you're going to be eaten
yeah like you're not going be that would hopefully comfort you in any like sense
of the word if you were dying in that sense is like I'm going to keep my friends alive like
I'm going to give them a hope and in a weird way it's not even like I'm yeah it's I agree with this vessel that I'm
walking around in yeah will at least be used to hopefully get them out of here yeah like
that's like weird I don't it's just that's wild it's some kind of logic you know and I agree like believe whatever
you want but when you're gone you're gone yeah I mean that's what I not your body anymore just like there's there's
something else there so it's like yeah it's and but again what a hard to Fathom what a wildly difficult conversation to
navigate yeah that they must have had but you know they they'd already gotten through the worst they had now after
they'd come to an agreement and it was everybody came to the agreement a small group of the young men left the fuselage
and walked to the area where they had put the bodies of the dead and they that must have been oh heavy they said they
were all wildly uncomfortable obviously wildly upset but they just knew what they had
to do but none of them walked out there being like cool we're going to go eat our friends like they were all
horrifically traumatized by this yeah but they reasoned that you know and this is a quote God wanted them to live and
he had given them the means to do so in the dead bodies of their friends it would be wrong now to reject this gift
of life because they were a little too squeamish okay it was decided that canessa cuz he was a medical student was
probably the most appropriate person to cut the bodies because they didn't want to mutilate the bodies of their friends
either and so they used a piece of broken glass from the plane I was wondering what they ended up using and
he cut pieces of Frozen Frozen flesh into 20 strips and laid them out on the roof of the plane to dry in the Sun and
then he went back inside and let them all know it's up there if you want to eat it eat it okay it's there all right
despite all of them being in the most profound state of hunger that you can possibly even conjure in your
imagination none of them made a move to get it you would not want to be the first person to make that move no that's
the thing but canessa himself said he was going to try to set an example try to make them all feel better about the
whole thing cuz you knew they were all starving he's like you're starving and you're going to and this is what we I'll
be the one to start the whole thing and he went out and he got a piece from the roof and you know he was the one that
just a few hours early was like convincingly arguing that it was no different from the meat of the cattle
back at home that they were accustomed to eating but it is cuz it's it you but he found himself like pretty much
paralyzed when it came to actually eating the meat and he had to force himself to bring his hand up and like
shove it into his mouth decades later Ramon Sabella would recall this whole experience with the same way he said of
course the idea of eating human flesh was terrible repugnant it was hard to put in your mouth but we got used to it
mhm so none of them are like yeah it was great like thanks thanks a bunch friends
like they all they're like it was the [ __ ] worst experience of my life and and it's true the food actually
and it's like remarkably nourishing this sustenance so it has a lot of you know we're full of vitamins
and nutrients so it's like this was and it's meat yeah it's got a lot to protein
so for the first time since the crash several of these young men started feeling like okay I'm getting my
strength back like I'm feeling like I can get through this and because they were feeling physically stronger their
resolve was getting more strong sure so they were like this is the gift that our
friends have given us like they they wanted this you know what I mean like that's how they had they would have
wanted this yeah now having solved their biggest problem starvation they started
discussing how they might get the [ __ ] out of the Andes after a couple of weeks
in the mountains they had actually kind of acclimated to their surroundings a little bit and they started to learn
things they should do things they shouldn't do um parado said we started to acclimate you start to learn I
started to learn how to walk in the snow properly on day 12 a small group managed
to climb several M miles up the mountain actually wow hoping that up there they would be able to maybe spot some
civilization in One Direction or another but every time they thought they were reaching the top of the peak they would
find another higher Peak just above them oh God and they couldn't see anything through it but it was on this track that
when they reached an outcropping of rock finally that had broken through the snow
that they found one of the plane's wings and it was twisted scattered across the snow and with it they found
five of their former traveling companions oh God Gaston camale Alexis Hoy Guido magri Wen Ramirez and Ramone
Martinez that must have been awful yeah they were they were you know preser as well cuz of the freezing temperatures
but their faces were black which suggested that they had been burned by the engines or the fuel when they were
ripped out of the plane oh my God now although they had discovered more of the wreckage and the missing bodies of their
friends they didn't really come out of the mountains with anything else yeah unfortunately they hadn't managed to
gain any more insight into their location they hadn't found anything useful in the wreckage that they had
found and most importantly they were now exhausted physically literally trucked up a mountain side and they said if they
thought they were going to be hiking out of these mountains to go get help that short Excursion proved that that was
going to be a lot more difficult than they thought maybe impossible yeah now by October 29th the survivors had fallen
into kind of like a routine at this point they were keeping a schedule they were maintaining order it was like a
little it's like Survivor Village yeah and that day October 29th they had broke into smaller groups and spent the
morning cleaning the fuselage cutting and drying meat melting snow and those who were still too weak were you know
resting in Hammock beds that they' created from materials and for most of the day it was unusually calm but then
later the sky started getting darker and it this like wicked cold wind started whipping through and everyone it was too
cold for everyone to be outside so they got into the fuselage all together and they spent the rest of the night telling
stories trying to keep warm chatting with each other about family about what they're going to do when they get out of
here and then one by one they drifted off to sleep now Roy Harley was laying awake on the floor squeezed between
Javier methyl and caros PAs when he felt this like weird vibration run through the floor of the plane and just seconds
later he heard what he described as the sound of metal falling to the ground and
he jumped up to see what was happening and he had a t-shirt covering his face like to try to get away from the wind
but he'd only just stood up when he was hit by a wall of snow that buried him to
his waist and nearly knocked him to the ground an avalanche when he pulled his shirt away from his face he was
horrified to see that the plane was just hit by a [ __ ] Avalanche and the entire fuselage was filled with snow
densely packed snow it had knocked down all of the walls that they had built up and it had
buried everyone who had been laying on the floor so not only did these people survive the wildest plane garage of all
time but now they've been hit by a [ __ ] Avalanche and all the [ __ ] that they have spent weeks and weeks
building to keep themselves together gone and all of their the bodies would which is their food source is now buried
under how much snow mhm oh my God so Roy question absolutely everything like how
do you go after the Avalanche I'm like how how did you get the will cuz that would have been I don't know how
mentally I would have been able to get myself out of that no so Roy is frantic he starts digging down into the snow to
get any of his friends and manages to uncover Caro's face but the snow was packed too densely and he wasn't able to
free any more of his body just his face oh my God he knew there were others so he left caros where he was and started
furiously digging around and he kept seeing hands pop up so he's digging around the hands and he managed to First
free Rob Roberto canessa uh who immediately started digging to free others and one by one they dug each
other out of the snow which had begun to settle and was now forming a sheet of ice across the surface oh my God Nando
parado had also been laying on the floor alongside several others and was completely buried when the Avalanche hit
he later said which goodness I couldn't move I was under Rubble but I could I could breathe
and he said he laid buried in the snow for 30 minutes and he would take shallow breaths to try to keep from suffocating
oh how do you not hyperventilate I have no idea I would I would absolutely without a doubt hyperventilate and he
said within the after the 30 minutes he said he just kind of like accepted that he was going to die buried in snow and
then someone started scraping the ice and snow away from face and haed him out of the snow even I feel like I can't
breathe just hearing this and they just didn't give up on each other no these people must have been lifelong friends
Lally yes and spoiler alert yes they and like after ripping each other being buried in the snow hit hit by an
avalanche by a [ __ ] Avalanche torn out of the snow they all just immediately start digging for the other
people they're not like taking a second to be like oh my God I just got hit by Devan they're all just running on
adaline outside the plane there's a blizzard raging by the way inside they're doing their best just to get
everyone out of this [ __ ] snow and in filling the plane with densely packed snow the Avalanche also blocked every
exit and they were now trapped in the fuselage no yep buried to their waists in freezing snow oh my how did they not
get hypothermia that I have no idea and some I mean some of them most certainly did but yeah of course and they didn't
whether the weight of the snow on the top of the fuselage was enough to crush them they had no idea how much snow was
on top of them oh my God PR later said we didn't know if we had enough air we didn't know if we had 2 M 4 M or 50 m of
snow on top of us oh my they had no idea God and equally bad was the real realization that not everyone had made
it through the Avalanche some had been completely buried by the compact snow and others had been crushed by the
falling debris from the makeshift wall oh like can you imagine no no of the 27 survivors who laid down to sleep that
night eight died in the Avalanche wow those killed were Carlos Rog Daniel maspons Juan Carlos Menendez Liliana
methyl Gustavo nikolich Marcelo Perez Enrique PLO and Diego storm were all killed in the
Avalanche sad now a few hours later a second Avalanche struck no no yeah but the only good thing was that
they had already been buried by the first one so it just kind of rolled over the already buried plane like once it
felt safe enough to move without triggering another Avalanche Nando used a cargo Pole to punch a large hole
through the roof of the plane which allowed fresh air to enter through wow but while they were you know it was
keeping them from being suffocated you know suffocated by this they were still buried yeah like and even if they could
get out of the plane the blizzard conditions outside were going to kill them right like what do you do I have no
idea the group spent 4 days buried in that plane just waiting for the blizzard to pass four
days stop it yeah at night they slept in just like a tangle with each other again
punching each other's arms and legs to try to keep circulation up on the fourth day when they were finally able to
emerge from the plane they forc themselves into the cockpit and squeeze past the bodies of the pilot and
co-pilot who are still there and then they spent hours working in 15minute shifts to dig out and exit through the
broken windshield of the cockpit oh my God yeah they managed to drag some of the bodies out through the tunnel they'
created but those that were buried too deeply in the dense snow were just left where they died uh in a the week that
followed they worked tirelessly to clear out some of the snow so they would at least have like some protection from the
elements but much of the interior was too densely packed with snow they couldn't even move it wow with what
little resources they had now obliterated by an avalanche and their shelter I mean seriously compromised
there were now 19 survivors and they had to make a [ __ ] decision at this point
they were like what do we do we can't stay here no if they were going to make it out of here alive they were going to
have to walk out yeah so in the earliest days after the crash several of the survivors started talking about walking
out of the mountains for help of course that was always on everyone's mind yeah the problem of course was that they
didn't have any equipment they didn't have any training necessary to make that kind of trk and they're on the side of a
[ __ ] mountain and also they have no [ __ ] idea where they are what direction civilization is so they would
take short hikes out of the B Valley just to see like we talked about before but again those would only emphasize how
unprepared they were to take such a track right so once the danger of the you know future avalanches and snow
drifts was here they decided the only way out was for them to hike out so three of the strongest members of the
remaining survivors parado canessa and Antonia vizon volunteered to make the trip and they started immediately
preparing they weren't they wer just going to go straight out they were going to prepare for it now this kind of
Journey would have been hard for the most experienced Mountaineer to do and even then they would have been outfitted
with like everything that you need specialized climbing and hiking equipment all the things you need food
yeah water and among all of this they were also complete these people are also completely unfamiliar with the terrain
outside the valley so they were at huge risk for falling into hidden valleys and
random creases in the earth slipping off a ice plane becoming buried in a snow drift there's like any host of dangers
out there and also they would have to do a certain amount of climbing over icy and Rocky
terrain all of which they would have to do without climbing shoes ice axes any safety equipment ropes all I can do
right now is think of the beginning of this episode when I was like I woke up early and took a walk on my treadmill
yeah wow wow wow wow these people are like I survived a plane crash two avalanches and hiked outside of
mountains that I don't even know where they were yeah with no equipment and I complain about like waking up early but
you know what if this is a motivation to get the [ __ ] up and do some stuff you've
been meaning to do my damn you go yeah P said I knew that when I gave the first step to leave the fuselage I was not
coming back this is a kamakazi Expedition I mean yeah so the three men spent weeks preparing for this Gathering
whatever supplies they could find they made sleeping bags from sewn together cushions and fabric W how did you how
they even sew anything together no idea I think it was like hand tied kind of [ __ ] damn and they made a sled crafted
out of suitcases that like pieces of suitcases that they had cuz they I think they didn't have like maybe they had
like one or two pieces of luggage but they did not they miss they were missing quite a bit of luggage yeah they also
spent the days consuming large amounts of fat and meat to try to like build up strength um they took short trips into
the surrounding mountains like trying to see how they could build up their strength and on one of those trips they
found the wreckage of the tail the plan's tail and all of the [ __ ] luggage oh okay well that's they found
the luggage to them this was like a [ __ ] gold mine the ultimate sign to keep gold they got dry clothes chocolate
candies a ski kit with poles they could use for the [ __ ] hike wow tell me they weren't meant to find that [ __ ]
dude that just makes you believe that the Universe [ __ ] works for you ski a ski kit with with pulse that is so it's
the secret it is that's wild like purest form they said we're getting out of here
we're going to figure it out we're going to build up our stamina and they were not it didn't sound like they were
negative in any way whatsoever and they all the [ __ ] they needed not all the [ __ ] but like most of the [ __ ] they
needed came to them and it's like you know there were times of deep despair of course and deep hopelessness here I
can't the likes of which probably most of us can never even understand or fathom or conjure in our minds but I
think that like what was important here was that they didn't let it consume them
yeah they just said we're getting out of here we're going to figure out how to get out of here like for them to do
these little trips to try to gain the strength and to prepare they weren't just like let's give it our best shot
they were like oh no [ __ ] we're getting the [ __ ] out of here we're going to make sure we are prepared and out of
here I cannot wait to hear about the lives that they LED afterwards it's wild they also in the luggage they found a
bottle of rum you needed at that point many cartons of cigarettes nice bottles of Coca-Cola which oh holy [ __ ] a crisp
Coke after IM two Avalanches oh my God I can't imagine how good those Cokes tast
oh my God but also you have to go so slow you can't just your body's not used to it yeah oh my God they also found a
crate of moldy sandwiches which at that point eat let's go that night they camped at the
site eating a pretty large meal they had a feast that and finishing it off with a
dessert they called it which was a paste made of sugar toothpaste and rum oh God which you know so Bleak they're
hungry but this time unfortunately was not one just of Hope and just of good things there was more tragedy to come
two weeks after the Avalanche one of the survivors our turo nogira had become sick and started getting weaker as the
days passed he became delirious and eventually fell into a coma and died on November 15th imagine like he got so far
that far that's awful noa's death was followed a few days later by Raphael eavan who died from an infection in his
leg oh a few weeks after eavan passed Numa turati died in his sleep from sepsis so it was like really one after
the other and that far to survive the crash survive two avalanches and then have that be the case like that's awful
now by the time that turati had passed the group had been stranded in the Andes for 61 days 61 days and it was clear to
the three volunteers that the longer they waited the more likely it was that people were going to die yeah they had
to go so on the morning of December 12th par canessa and vison left the valley headed to the west where they believed
they would find help before leaving they dressed in several layers of clothing because again they had found those
[ __ ] luggage things and even fashioned socks made of human skin they did this because they felt like it would
keep their feet from getting soaked with water which would put them at risk for frostbite yeah pretty smart very maob
rough very smart morbid within a few days of hiking it became clear to the three on the trip that this was going to
be a lot harder than they thought it would be and they thought it was going to be pretty [ __ ]
hard there were several sheer ice Cliffs and rock walls to climb all again with no equipment or experience on the second
night canessa and pado suggested it might be better if vizintin returned to the plane because they said it would
give them more food rations and increase the likelihood of getting help okay they
were like maybe we shouldn't have all three of us out here so vitin agreed he was like you know what yeah so he began
the trick back to the plane while they continued West doing that all by yourself no for nearly a week canessa
and parado hiked and climbed through the [ __ ] Andes at times climbing nearly a
thousand ft in one day holy [ __ ] that is twice the recommended daily climb for an
experienced hiker that's insane that just shows you how absolutely [ __ ] determined they were deted they also
were going through Al several bouts of altitude sickness which is [ __ ] awful if you've ever been altitude sick oh oh
no I'm multiple occasions they were deceived too by what looked like a short distance between one location and
another oh only to have it suddenly stretch out for miles and miles early in the trip they spent days climbing
thousands of feet up the mountain too to just look on the other side and find it
completely impassible oh God so to have to go all the way back down that's horrific now after about a week of
walking the pair began to notice the environment around them started changing a little okay the once Frozen terrain
started to soften and then all of a sudden they started seeing signs of [ __ ] life I can't even imagine what
that would feel like they saw an old campfire that would be euphoric animal manure stop it eventually they saw some
cows dude I would cry I would cry on those cows finally on December 20th canessa and Prado reached a river and
began following it until they saw the smoke from a campfire across the river up when canessa then canessa spotted two
men by the fire one standing the other on a horse two too weak to walk he just yelled for parado who ran to the edge of
the water to and immediately they were trying to catch the men's attention urging them to come to the edge of the
water which the man did yeah and then but the noise of the Rushing River made it impossible for them to hear each
other stop it so the man across the way pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a message and then he wrapped it around a
rock and tossed it to the other side just the where with all of these people I always say people are going to people
here's another reason people are people but in good way but in the good way people are peopling Nando grabbed the
Rock and unwrapped the note and it read There is a man coming later that I told him to go tell me what you want and in
response Nando sat down and wrote this note I come from a plane that fell in the mountains I'm Uruguayan we have been
walking for 10 days I have a friend up there who is injured in the plane there are still 14 injured people we have to
get out of here quickly and we don't know how we don't have any food we are weak when are you come and fetch us
please we can't even walk where are we oh now before sending the note back over the river he took out a tube of red
lipstick that he had in his pocket from the luggage and wrote SOS on the bottom of the note okay and then he threw it
back to him the man read the note slowly then looked up at Nando and indicated that he understood then he took a large
chunk of bread from his bag and tossed it to them people going to [ __ ] people oh my God can you imagine this is
what we needed to hear for like in the beginning of the year yes we didn't need another hopeless story of people being
[ __ ] terrible to each other no we needed this this is the energy to bring into 2025 imagine what that bread must
have tasted like oh my god wow I can't even fathom wow I say I know I've said that a lot I can't fathoming is not
something I can do during this episode W I've said remarkable we we're all using
the same adjectives and it was before he left to get help he was like here's some
bread like please eat Nando rushed back to canessa and they shared their food and news that after 69 days in the
mountain they were going to be saved now it turned out that the man on the other
side of the river was a local farmer named Sergio Catalan he lived high in the mountains and after discovering PR
and canessa by the river he himself traveled 10 hours by mule to the nearest police station to get them help 10 hours
by by mule himself and they must have losing some kind of help Hope at that point like not knowing if he's going to
come back cuz then it's like I'm assuming 10 hours back well and then they a few hours after he left they were
discovered by another man on Horseback who gave them more food and water then carefully he loaded them onto the back
of his horse and brought them to his Hut oh my God where he shared some cheese and gave them a place to lay down and
rest people people people angeling right pado said Roberto was very weak he gave
everything that he had everybody gave everything that they had oh over the course of 10 days the two men had
traveled 37 miles oh my God under some of the most intense and bad conditions that you can imagine climbing hundreds
of feet every single day and in fact years later when they discussed the trip with mountaineering experts they were
told that they quote achieved what they did because of their ignorance had you known what you were going to face you
would have never left the airplane you never knew what you were going to face and that's why you made it so they're
literally like had you known no way you would have made that out but because you
went in there completely ignorant and just said we're getting out you did it the next day a helicopter arrived in the
village and canessa and parado were presented with maps and asked to point where the plane had crashed but they
indicated where the plane was and their Rescuers were like no that's nearly 80 mil away in Argentina like what are you
talking about it couldn't possibly be where it was so Nando was like do you want me to get in the [ __ ] helicopter
and go show you despite everything that he had been through in a [ __ ] aircraft he was like I'll get in the
helicopter I what the fact that that didn't even register in my brain after everything these people have been
through this guy offers to get in a helicopter Nando was like I'll get in the helicopter so we can go get my
friends because like I need to get you to them wow like they're safe he's getting in there to get the rest of them
he's like I can't let you not them so I'm going to get in here desite what I've been through in the [ __ ] a
that's a [ __ ] King right there if he wanted to he would he he if he wanted to he would he did damn and what he said
about it later when they finally got to the crash site he said three of my friends jumped over me like dogs kissing
me and shouting it was a very surreal and emotional scene it was their first Spark of being alive again wow the
helicopter couldn't accommodate everyone all at once so they had to leave a few survivors at the site and come back for
them after the first group which like must have been the scariest because you're just like please come back for me
eventually they did manage to rescue all 16 survivors who were taken to the hospital that were at the site taken to
the hospital in San Fernando Chile where they were treated for various injuries and severe malnutrition yeah but the
news of the rescue came as an absolute shock to everyone particularly the families of the survivors oh you must
have just thought your family member was dead two months yeah even more surprising was the fact that according
to their doctors their survivors were deemed to be despite all they what they went through in surprisingly good
condition wow despite what they had been through like it you know relatively like
you said we're full of vitamins and nutrients although they had lost a significant amount of weight now at
first the group appears to in the beginning they look like they kind of like minimized their ordeal to the Press
they did like yeah they were all just like you know what it's fine so Robert Roberto canessa told the reporter after
the crash I looked to one side and there was my friend Fernando I asked him if he
was all right and he said yes he said he only had some bruises wow the truth of what happened PR was unconscious for
several days and had sustained a head injury oh but he was just like ah you know crash I looked over my friend was
fine like let's move on like he was just like we don't need to talk about it because it probably didn't sink in for
all of them right away dead none of them wanted to focus on like the tragedy of the whole thing instead they wanted to
focus on their survival instincts like they were just like we got out of there like that's what matters here like none
of them wanted like pity none of them wanted any of that they were like we got together we stayed together we worked
together and we stayed alive together and they probably were like we're out of there now and we don't really want to
think about it that much again well and I think they were literally like what you need to know is that we worked as a
team and because we cared about our fellow human that's why we're here where we are and Kessa said all who could do
so worked the others prayed but we all kept our faith wow and again who knows why they chose to like minimize the
extent of the trauma and injuries they sustained but the most glaring you know thing that was left out of their story
obviously was how they had managed to avoid starvation yeah the Press noted that they had melted snow to avoid
dehydration and you know managed to avoid starvation by rationing you know what food was left on the plane and I
understand why they wanted to leave this part out of the thing you know like why
that's not what should be focused on here no but within a few days Chilean officials had leaked the real
explanation for how the survivors had stayed alive so unnecessary yeah and the Press of course sees the story oh yeah
it's salous the reports said police sources said that after the food aboard the plane ran out the exhausted
survivors ate one body every 5 days and other sources to told journalists The Rescuers quote found six cut up human
bodies at the crash site which is like yeah that's true that is what happened and of course reporting on it would be
priority CU that's a very fascinating and horrifying part of it yeah because obviously
cannibalism has been the subject of like horror and also Fascination to the public for literal centuries so like you
understand why this is like a massive part of this and obviously it's like one of the biggest taboos you can of and
again they had good reason to keep that to themselves because of that um in alive um which again is the book that
you guys should definitely read uh by Pierce Paul Reed he said they thought they would be stoned in the streets like
they were scared but fortunately while understandable that feeling they were wrong that's good that's not what they
received they still claim they had a significant amount of food on board the plane um One Survivor said that they
thought they could survive if they rationed for you know another few weeks but the reality of their surviving on
chocolate and other snacks for 2 months was just not reality um in the end most people understood that under the
circumstances they had no other choice to but to resort to eating meet yes um in his speeches about the experience
Ramone Sabella always asked the audience would any of you not have done the same
thing and he has yet to have anyone raise their hand yeah that would be such a [ __ ] dick imagine looking at that
man and being like n you know somebody in the years that followed the Survivor story became honestly like a
Beacon of Hope yeah and like the ability to triumph over the most extreme circumstances and challenges you can
imagine um in 1974 Reed's book about the experience alive the stories of the Andy
survivors was released much a claim to this day people know that book um and this is it kind of like reignited the
interest in learning more about this story and what they went through oh yeah outside of just the cannibalism kind of
thing right um canessa said of the whole like Fame that came with this story he said there's a difference in how you
feel you are and how others see you and he said he was surprised at how little judgment they had received for their
actions and he was also kind of shocked by the attention they were getting for surviving the whole thing which I was
like dude like like you the fact that you don't know you done now in the decades since the crash the survivors
have all gone on to live very productive lives yes none of them want to waste their Good Fortune like all of them
looked at it as like this is a gift and I need not waste it Nando PDA became a motivational speaker and has written a
book and several articles about the whole thing canessa went on to finish medical school yes yep and became a
Pediatric Cardiologist wow yeah he also has written and spoken extensively about
the whole ordeal in the Andes many of the others have chosen to keep their lives a little more private they totally
get that they're kind of they're doing the damn thing but they're like yep I did it um but they have all gone to find
success in whatever they've done y um and every year the remaining survivors get together on the anniversary of the
crash and they all Gather in the salon that Roberto canessa has built onto his home specifically for the purpose of
this yearly meeting shut the [ __ ] up and I have never been happier to hear something like that I was like [ __ ] yeah
you do I love that like that's a bond that no one other than those 14 14 to 16 people like that's could ever understand
I'm just I imagine like imagine being in that room this like that feeling in that room
must be insane remember when you breathed your hot breath onto me to keep me me alive and
like punched my leg to keep circulation until you were too exhausted my God and just the the trauma that they all share
God the traa bond is beyond but like just and the fact that Roberto canessa has like one gone on to become a
Pediatric Cardiologist when he was in medical school during that like good for him yes and then like built this
specific little thing onto his home so that they can have their meetings every year like shut the [ __ ] that's beautiful
it is it's so beautiful that is one of the gnarliest stories I've ever heard in life most tragic but most inspiring and
like uplifting in the end and I had heard of that one and of course I mainly just heard that like they ate each other
to stay alive but wow I did not know the details it is such an it is just an incredible story a
plane crash and two [ __ ] avalanches in the middle of absolutely nowhere yep wow like and then the guy
throwing them the bread oh my God that's the thing like it just is like and I like you look at the pictures oh yeah
that they have from the crash site and everything it's unbelievable crazy truly unbelievable wow yeah well new year new
us we're about to tackle everything we ever dream does if that doesn't inspire you to like do whatever the [ __ ] it is
that you were thinking about doing or changing or fix or getting better at or releasing from your life do it I'm going
home to play my [ __ ] electric keyboard I'm going to figure that [ __ ] out hell yeah if those people can figure
out how to [ __ ] hike thousands of miles out of a valley in the middle of the Andes I can learn the the G chords
[ __ ] yeah you can let's go brother [ __ ] yeah you can wow yeah wow wow wow I have
nothing other than to say except wow that's all you can say I can't even speak at this point
so with that being said go crush your [ __ ] day do it we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird
but not so weird that you ever think you can't do anything ever again because this story is proof that you could do
legitimately anything literally anything no excuse [Music] [Music] [Music] for

On October 13, 1972, a chartered aircraft carrying forty-five passengers, including 19 members of the Old Christians’ Club rugby team, departed from Montevideo, Uruguay bound for Santiago, Chile. About an hour into the flight, the copilot incorrectly believed the plane had gotten off course and requested permission from air traffic control in Santiago to begin his descent and course correct. However, when the plane began descending out of the cloud cover, the copilot realized he’d been wrong about their position and were in fact dangerous close to the Andes mountains. The pilots attempted to pull the plane back up, but they were unsuccessful and the crashed directly into the mountain.

Ultimately, sixteen of the forty-five passengers survived the crash of flight 571, spending seventy-two days in an isolated, untraveled part of the Andes. They endured extremely harsh conditions including sub-zero temperatures, exposure to freezing wind, and most significantly, starvation. The survivors were eventually rescued after two passengers hiked three days out of the mountains, using only materials from the wreckage to aid in the trek, where they eventually found help.

In the years since the crash, the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 has become one of the most famous tales of survival and human endurance.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References Associated Press. 1972. "16 survive 2 months in Andes after crash." Boston Globe, December 23: 2.

—. 1972. "Crash survivors resorted to cannibalism." Boston Globe, December 27: 2.

—. 1972. "16 Air crash survivors found after 69 days in icy Andes." Los Angeles Times, December 23: 1.

Benales, Carlos. 1972. "Andes survivors solved problem of food, shelter." Chicago Tribune, December 31: 9.

Campbell, Matthew. 2022. "Fifty years on, 'Alive' team say eating flesh was awful but they got used to it." Sunday Times, October 16.

Godfrey, Chris. 2023. "My plane crashed in the Andes. Only the unthinkable kept me and the other starving survivirs alive." The Guardian, December 4.

Lilliston, Lynn. 1974. "Andes crash survivors tell their story." Los Angeles Times, May 5: 179.

Read, Piers Paul. 1974. Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors. New York, NY: J.B. Lippincott Company.

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

Survivors of Flight 571 faced cannibalism and extreme conditions in the Andes, showcasing resilience and the will to live.

Key points

Survival Story Begins. The episode kicks off with a harrowing survival story of a plane crash.
The Crash of Flight 571. A rugby team faces a tragic plane crash in the Andes, leading to unimaginable survival challenges.
Survivors in Isolation. After the crash, survivors find themselves in complete isolation, surrounded by mountains and snow.
Desperate Measures. As starvation looms, Nando suggests cannibalism to survive, leading to a moral dilemma.
A Pact for Survival. Survivors agree that if one dies, their body will be used to help others survive.
Survivors Face the Unthinkable. After a plane crash, survivors confront the horror of cannibalism to survive.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This year is going to be just greatness across the board!

Optimism for the new year.

3:20WatchJan 20, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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