How many Uruguayans survived the accident in the Andes depicted in ‘The Snow Society’

a plane crashfollowed by a story of tragedy and overcoming, was experienced by a group of Uruguayans and their families, when their plane crashed in the mountain range of The Andes Mountains and fell into a snow-covered valley, where the temperature dropped to 30 degrees below zero. This is the story of the 16 survivors of the Andeswhich is played in a movie directed by Juan Antonio Bayona: The Snow Association (2023), based on a book of the same name.

The accident occurred on October 13, 1972, the day 40 passengers boarded Honest child FH-227D, aircraft of the Uruguayan Air Force, on the way to Santiago de Chile. The passengers were youngsters from the Uruguayan rugby team Old Christians and were on their way to play a series of matches in the Chilean capital.

In addition to the crew, there were 19 players on board the plane, most of them in their twenties, some accompanied by family and friends. The team doctor was also there with his wife and a woman who was on her way to her daughter’s wedding in Chile.

Although the flight was postponed for a day due to an emergency stopover in Mendoza, Argentina, and despite warnings of bad weather, the decision was made to continue the journey. The first challenge was the weather and the complicated journey: The plane had to take an alternate route to avoid passing close to the Andes Mountains and reach Santiago safely.

The plane crashes

However, due to the pilots’ incorrect calculations and cloudy vision, they began to descend when they were still tens of kilometers away from the airport. And so it was The plane crashed in the mountains, losing both wings and then breaking in two. The tail of the plane flew away with the passengers in the back, while the fuselage sank over a thousand meters until it fell into a snowy valley.

The lieutenant died in the fall Ramon Martinez (navigator), the Sergeant Ovidio Ramirez (flight attendant), Gaston Costemalle (law student), Jorge ‘Alejo’ Hounié (veterinary medicine student), Guido Magri (student of agronomy), Daniel Shaw (livestock farmer) and Carlos Valletta (student).

The impact of the falling fuselage killed four other passengers: the Dr. Francisco Nicola (rugby team doctor) and his wife Esther Horta de Nicola, Eugenia Dolgay de Parrado (mother of Fernando Parrado) and Fernando Vazquez (medical student). Julio Cesar Ferradas (pilot) also died after being crushed against the instrument panel. His co-pilot was stuck in the same position and was still alive, but would die during the first night.

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The first night

That night was an ordeal for those still alive, but it was the end for the other four people who died, after succumbing to the extreme cold or their injuries: Francisco ‘Panchito’ Abal Guerault, Graciela Gumila de Mariani (wedding guest) Dante Héctor Lagurara Accompanied (co-pilot) and Julio Martinez-Lamas.

The next morning, those who woke up alive had a common goal: to survive. They began to organize, divide tasks and adjust the space in the fuselage.removing the bodies and arranging the wounded, searching among the luggage for anything that could help them cover themselves against the cold or eat.

This is how they adapted in the first days, rationing the little food they had and improvising ways to survive.

The bad news

Ten days had passed since their fall, and the hope that they would be saved began to fade. While listening to a radio they had managed to repair, the rugby players heard They heard the bad news that the search for the plane’s wreckage had been suspended.

This was announced by a Uruguayan radio station The rescue effort would resume in February of the following year, when the thaw began and warmer temperatures. That was the hardest blow for the group of young people, who realized that they would have to survive in the frozen mountains indefinitely, or until they could get out on their own.

The second blow to the passengers was when a snow avalanche fell on the plane 17 days after the accident, causing it to sink even further and burying everyone in it. Some were able to get out on their own, others needed help and still others died from suffocation by the snow: Daniel Mason, Juan Menendez, Liliana Methol, Gustavo Nicolich, Marcelo Perez del Castillo, Enrique Platero, Carlos Roque And Diego Storm.

Anthropophagia

The lack of food was still their biggest problem, and so the group of survivors made the decision together eat the corpses of passengers, in the absence of any other solution. It was difficult as the majority were his colleagues and family.

Two of the players, medical students, were responsible for dismembering the bodies and distributing them to the rest of their classmates. Many had strong religious objections, but the need to survive was greater.

From then on, everyone gave permission for the rest to use their bodies as food, in case of death. By resorting to anthropophagy they stayed alive they spent the rest of the weeks in Los Andes.

The last three deaths were those of Arturo Nogueira And Rafael Echavarrenbecause of gangrene in his wounds, and Numa Turcattiwho already weighed 25 kilograms at the time of his death.

The rescue

Fernando Parrado, Roberto Canessa And Antonio José Tintin Vizintin Brandi, they chose to seek help on December 12. Not knowing what awaited them behind the mountains, they prepared for weeks, eating the largest pieces of meat to gain strength and waiting for the temperature to rise.

Climbing a mountain took three days, after that Tintin He returned to the hull so that the food would last longer for Parrado and Canessa. They both walked aimlessly through the Andes Mountains, and After ten days of walking they met a muleteer on horseback.

It was over Sergio Catalan, who after discovering who the young people were, started looking for help. The announcement that two passengers from Flight 571 had been found came over the radio, and so the rest of the survivors in the fuselage learned that they would be rescued.

The next day Helicopters arrived at the scene of the accident to remove some of the passengers.. Those who did not enter stayed another night accompanied by rescuers and left at dawn.

When they arrived in Santiago de Chile, they went straight to a hospital to be treated malnutrition, dehydration, broken bones, to freeze And dehydration.

It had been 72 days since their plane crashed and they were finally safe.

The survivors

16 passengers survived the tragedy and returned to their families. Since then, they have been sharing their story of improvement in interviews, books and documentaries.

The Snow Association

This is how the group of survivors and their companions who perished in the Andes became known. Pablo Viercia classmate of some young people, wrote the book that became one of the references of the experiences of Uruguayans.

And it is the work that inspired it Juan Antonio Garcia Bayona to shoot the movie The Snow Associationthat has had tremendous acceptance in Latin America and the world.

Several survivors and their families took part in the film’s research and filming process, and some of them appeared in the film’s scenes, as extras or secondary characters.

The film has already been shortlisted for the Oscar for Best International Film and is being judged in the visual effects, make-up and soundtrack categories. (JO)