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INEVITABLY, LAST TUESDAY’S airline disaster – in a remote region in the French Alps – brought back certain memories for people who remembered the 1972 Andes Flight Disaster.
On that occasion, 16 survivors were rescued two months after their plane went down in a mountainous border region between Chile and Argentina.
Tragically, on Tuesday, it quickly became apparent that there would be no survivors from the Germanwings crash. French authorities announced that all 150 people on board – passengers and crew – had died.
Several members of a Uruguayan rugby team who survived that disaster – which came to known as the ‘Miracle of the Andes’ – met up on the 40th anniversary of the crash, in 2012, to play a match against former Chilean players.
The men were stranded in the mountains for 72 days after the air force plane that carried their team crashed in a mountain pass in October 1972 while en route from Montevideo to Santiago for the planned game.
Of the 45 passengers aboard, 16 survived by feeding on dead family members and friends preserved in the snow.
“The conditions were more horrifying than you can ever imagine. To live at 4,000 metres without any food,” then 65-year-old survivor Eduardo Strauch told reporters at the anniversary match.
“The only reason why we’re here alive today is because we had the goal of returning home … (Our loved ones) gave us life. They made the sacrifice for others.”
“I think the greatest sadness I felt in my life was when I had to eat a dead body,” said Roberto Canessa (59) who was a teenage medical student at the time of the crash.
I would ask myself: Is it worth doing this? And it was because it was in order to live and preserve life, which is exactly what I would have liked for myself if it had been my body that lay on the floor.
Desperate after more than two months in the frigid peaks, Canessa and Fernando Parrado left the crash site to seek help.
It was the group’s last attempt at survival.
After 10 days of trekking, they spotted Sergio Catalan, a livestock herder in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. The conditions were such that the pair couldn’t get too close to Catalan, but from afar, they heard him say one word:
“Tomorrow.”
“With that (word), our suffering ended,” Canessa said.
“I came back to life after having died,” said Parrado, whose mother and sister died in the Andes.
It’s something that very few people experience.
His experience, he said, scarred him but made him stronger and brought him a newfound appreciation for life.
“Since then, I have enjoyed fully, carefully but without fear. I tried to enjoy my friend, my dog, my passions, a second at a time,” said Parrado, who has been a TV host, a race car driver and a motivational speaker.
Another survivor, Daniel Fernandez, (66) said the ordeal “taught me that we set our own limits”.
“If I had been told: ‘I’m going to leave you in a mountain 4,000 metres high, 20 degrees Celsius below zero in shirtsleeves, I would have said: I last 10 minutes.’ Instead, I lasted 72 days.”
The team’s terrifying story became the basis of a best-selling book and a Hollywood movie starring Ethan Hawke – ‘Alive’.
With reporting from Associated Press.
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Reminds me of Graham norton in father ted.
“What if we don’t get out and we have to eat each other like in that film alive?
Look, this is me eating tony.num num num”
Shut up, will you?! Will you please shut up?!! Will you shut up, shut up, shut up??!!
Well I never .You’re in for it now Tony .I’m putting you on my bad list of enemies.
“I REALLY like Tony!”
Bear Grylls look and learn. These are the real survival experts. .
He’s such a tw@t. He’s to survival what Danny Dyer is to being hard.
Yes he’s very annoying . All his stunts are rigged.
How did he fake climbing Everest after breaking his back?
Because he’s a showman
Lost all respect for the man after watching him “survive” on the west coast of ireland
Ray Mears is the real deal..
Exactly. Did he also fake his selection for the special forces?
People seem to be OK with church, state and business leaders lying through their teeth but TV shows should be ‘real’?
I might be wrong but I think the rugby team were from an Irish run college. Note the shamrocks on the track suits.
How’s about the Arran jumper in the first picture say he was glad of that
Their rugby club was set up by alumni of the Irish Christian Brothers run school: CBC Montevideo.
Team were called Los Cristianos – if I recall correctly
I’ve seen the film at least half a dozen times… Great story of Hope, Courage and Survival…. Classic!
My old German teacher in CBS knew some of them. I remember him telling us about the story.
The club is indeed Old Christians and was the old boys school of the Stella Maris school on Montevideo. It was set up in 1955 by the Christian brothers. Now a very dear friend Roberto Canessa and 100 Friends from the same club in Montevideo came over to Skerries in 2008 for a remarkable visit. We had a conference in Croke Park attended by 500 and raised money which has now built a school for the homeless orphans of Montevideo. National Geographic also voted Roberto and Nandos trek out of the Andes as ” the greatest feat of human endurance of the 29th century”. I had the privlidge of then visiting the crash site, 4,500 metres up the Andes, with Roberto and his two sons Hillario and Tino a couple of years ago. To sit on the wing of the plane (which believe it or not is still up there) was something very emotional. I also visited that school which was something to behold. Roberto, Guvtavo and the team “live every day for a lot of people”. I must write a blog and share some of the photos! BTW the first photo is not Nado that is Roberto being led away from the helicopter. Michael Branagan
Wonder what was on the menu at the reunion
Airline Stew-ard
There is a brilliant documentary called Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains about the crash and the survivors…def worth a watch!
There was maybe a lingering doubt in the minds of the two men. I hope that wasn’t a Spanish ‘maniana’ . Jeepers will he come back at all.
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