A half century after their plane crashed into the Andes, the survivors who resorted to cannibalism to remain alive got here together this week in Uruguay to recollect their grisly ordeal.
The story of the 16 survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which was chartered to take an amateur rugby team from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile, in 1972 was immortalized within the best-selling book, “Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors” by Piers Paul Read. It was later made right into a Hollywood movie in 1993.
“In fact, the thought of eating human flesh was terrible, repugnant,” said Ramon Sabella, 70, who’s among the many passengers of the Fairchild FH-2270 who survived 72 days within the Andes, the Sunday Times of London reported.
The group, all of whom are still alive, get together on the Oct. 13 anniversary of the crash for a mass to recollect the 29 friends and crew members who perished within the crash at an altitude of greater than 13,000 feet, in keeping with the outlet.
This 12 months, the fiftieth anniversary of their ordeal was celebrated with a stamp by the Uruguayan post office, the newspaper reported.
“It was hard to place in your mouth,” recalled Sabella, a successful businessman. “But we got used to it. In a way, our friends were a number of the first organ donors on the planet – they helped to nourish us and kept us alive.”
The group made their decision after consuming the food they’d on the plane, which included eight chocolate bars, a tin of mussels, three small jars of jam, some almonds and dates and a number of other bottles of wine
Today, the 16 survivors are a close-knit group who also meet annually on December 22, the day the rescue began, for a barbecue – of beef steaks and pork sausages.
The plane slammed right into a mountainside in rough weather when the pilot veered off-course. It had its wings ripped off on impact, resulting in the immediate death of 12 passengers and crew. Seventeen more would perish from their injuries and an avalanche, in keeping with reports. After ten days the group of survivors heard on a radio that the seek for them had been called off.
“Pondering of the suffering that will need to have caused our families at handmade us much more determined to survive,” said Sabella.
“Eating human flesh doesn’t taste like anything, really,” said fellow survivor Carlitos Paez, the son of an Uruguayan artist.
Paez said he has made a profession of traveling the world to lecture about his ordeal within the mountains.
“I’ve done six million miles on American Airlines,” he said. “I’m condemned to inform this story for evermore, identical to the Beatles all the time having to sing ‘Yesterday.’”
A half century after their plane crashed into the Andes, the survivors who resorted to cannibalism to remain alive got here together this week in Uruguay to recollect their grisly ordeal.
The story of the 16 survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which was chartered to take an amateur rugby team from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile, in 1972 was immortalized within the best-selling book, “Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors” by Piers Paul Read. It was later made right into a Hollywood movie in 1993.
“In fact, the thought of eating human flesh was terrible, repugnant,” said Ramon Sabella, 70, who’s among the many passengers of the Fairchild FH-2270 who survived 72 days within the Andes, the Sunday Times of London reported.
The group, all of whom are still alive, get together on the Oct. 13 anniversary of the crash for a mass to recollect the 29 friends and crew members who perished within the crash at an altitude of greater than 13,000 feet, in keeping with the outlet.
This 12 months, the fiftieth anniversary of their ordeal was celebrated with a stamp by the Uruguayan post office, the newspaper reported.
“It was hard to place in your mouth,” recalled Sabella, a successful businessman. “But we got used to it. In a way, our friends were a number of the first organ donors on the planet – they helped to nourish us and kept us alive.”
The group made their decision after consuming the food they’d on the plane, which included eight chocolate bars, a tin of mussels, three small jars of jam, some almonds and dates and a number of other bottles of wine
Today, the 16 survivors are a close-knit group who also meet annually on December 22, the day the rescue began, for a barbecue – of beef steaks and pork sausages.
The plane slammed right into a mountainside in rough weather when the pilot veered off-course. It had its wings ripped off on impact, resulting in the immediate death of 12 passengers and crew. Seventeen more would perish from their injuries and an avalanche, in keeping with reports. After ten days the group of survivors heard on a radio that the seek for them had been called off.
“Pondering of the suffering that will need to have caused our families at handmade us much more determined to survive,” said Sabella.
“Eating human flesh doesn’t taste like anything, really,” said fellow survivor Carlitos Paez, the son of an Uruguayan artist.
Paez said he has made a profession of traveling the world to lecture about his ordeal within the mountains.
“I’ve done six million miles on American Airlines,” he said. “I’m condemned to inform this story for evermore, identical to the Beatles all the time having to sing ‘Yesterday.’”
