Catalán threw them the loaves, as well a pen and paper tied to a rock. There he found the two men still on the other side of the river, on their knees begging for help. The next day Catalán took a few loaves of bread with him to the riverbank. The arrieros could never have imagined that these two men would be the first of the survivors of that crash to be found. Someone mentioned that several weeks before, the father of Carlos Paez, who was desperately searching for any possible news about the aircraft, had asked them about the Andes crash. During the evening dinner, Catalán discussed what he had seen with the other arrieros who were staying in a little summer ranch called Los Maitenes. One of the horsemen, a Chilean arriero named Sergio Catalán, shouted “tomorrow.” They knew at this point they would be saved and settled to sleep by the river. Without resorting to cannibalism, none of them would have made it off that mountain.
Because of the altitude and temperature, the dead passengers were perfectly preserved and the survivors were able to cut out greasy chunks of flesh from posteriors of the dead. But as starvation set in, they justified it by agreeing that if they died, they would want their friends to survive by eating them. They decided that the only way to survive was to eat the remains of their dead friends and family.Īt first, this decision didn’t go over well considering the passengers were all Roman Catholic. The survivors knew they would have to climb down the mountain, but the combination of altitude sickness, malnourishment, snow blindness, and the extreme cold at night made this almost impossible. The courage of one person kept the group going. Giving up hope was the only way to survive. By giving up hope of being rescued, they could finally make the tough decisions that lay ahead to save themselves. He told everyone it was good news, because they were going to rescue themselves. Upon hearing the news, everyone broke down into tears and prayer except for Gustavo Nicolich. On the 11th day, the survivors scavenged a transistor radio from the cockpit and learned that they were on their own. Because the plane was white and they were so high up, search crews never found them and the search was called off after only 8 days.
on the cockpit, but gave up after realizing they didn’t have enough to make it visible. The survivors tried using lipstick to paint S.O.S. By placing water bottles under it, they could collect water, but it was a slow process.
They were able to melt snow by placing it on metal they had ripped out of the seats. They did their best to ration these, but they quickly ran out. The only food on board were small bars of chocolate the airline gave to passengers and several bottles of wine. During the day it was warm enough to lounge outside the plane, but at night their only warmth came from the body heat of their fellow survivors.
Unfortunately, few of them had jackets and their shoes were designed for playing rugby, not scaling down the side of a mountain in the winter. Five more people died that first night on the mountain.Īfter no rescue came the next day, they used luggage and clothing to block up the hole, keeping the elements at bay. All night the freezing winds kept them awake and suffering. When it crashed, it had split in two and the survivors found themselves huddled in the frontmost section of the plane with a giant hole letting in the wind and snow. At night the temperature would drop below freezing and their only shelter was the wreckage of the plane. Being that high up in the mountains will kill you if you don’t have a way to protect yourself against the elements.
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