72 - Days of ordeal, Nando Parrado and other survivors of a plane crash
in the Andes had to endure before being rescued. Flying over the
mountains on a Friday the 13th, the
young men and their families who boarded the
charter plane
joked about the unlucky day when the plane's wing hit the slope of the
mountain and crashed. On impact, 13 passengers were instantly dead while
32 others were badly wounded. Hoping to be rescued, the survivors
waited in the freezing -37C temperature, melting snow for drinks and
sleeping side by side to keep themselves warm. Food was so scarce,
everyone had to pool whatever food they can find for a rationed pool.
9
days after the crash, due to dire desperation and hunger, the survivors
called for an important meeting. One member proposed that they eat the
dead. The 2 hours meeting ended with a conclusion. If any of them died
in the Andes, the rest had the permission to use the corpse as food.
After 2 weeks, their hope of being found dashed when they found out via
their radio transistor that the rescue effort was called off.
On
the 60th day after the crash, Nando Parrado and 2 other friends decided
to walk through the icy wilderness for help. By the time they left,
Nando Parrado said, the crash site was “.. an awful place, soaked in
urine, smelling of death, littered with ragged bits of
human bone and gristle”. Wearing 3 pairs of jeans and 3 sweaters over a
polo shirt, he and his friends trekked the mountains with human flesh as their ration.
Knowing
that they must search for rescue, the team endured frozen snow,
exhaustion and starvation, walking and climbing for 10 days before
finding their way to the bottom of the mountain. The team was finally
helped by a Chilean farmer who called the police for help. Parrado then
guided the rescue team via a helicopter to the crash site.
On the
22nd December 1972, after enduring 72 brutal days, the world found out
that there were 16 survivors who cheated death, in the mountain of
Andes. 8 of the initial survivors died when an avalanche cascaded down
on them as they slept in the fuselage.
During the ordeal, Nando
Parrado lost 40 kg of his weight. He lost half his family in the crash.
He is now a motivational speaker.
