WITNESSarchive

W–027 · Documentary photograph and sources

Flight 571: Seventy-Two Days in the Andes

On their eleventh day in the mountains, a small radio brought the news that the official search had ended. The survivors were living in the broken fuselage on a snowy slope. Their plane had crashed on 13 October 1972 while carrying members of Uruguay’s Old Christians rugby club, their relatives and friends to Chile. Forty-five people were aboard.

1. Beside the fuselage

Survivors stand by the Fairchild fuselage in which they sheltered. The photographer and exact date are unknown.
Survivors stand by the Fairchild fuselage in which they sheltered. The photographer and exact date are unknown.
Provenance and sources for frame 1

Displayed file: 695 × 464 pixels. Full image record in Russian.

sociedaddelanieve.comView image file

Over the Andes, the Uruguayan Air Force crew misjudged their position and began to descend too soon. The Fairchild FH-227D struck a ridge, losing its wings and tail. Those who survived sheltered in the remaining fuselage, blocking the open end with suitcases and wreckage and melting snow on sheets of metal. Searchers in the air failed to spot the white fuselage against the snow.

Their stores of chocolate, wine and other food ran out. To avoid starving, they began to eat the bodies of those who had died. Survivors later described the decision as an agreement to help one another stay alive.

2. Survivors and rescuers

A group portrait on the snow. Sociedad de la Nieve labels it “Last day with the rescuers”; no photographer is named.
A group portrait on the snow. Sociedad de la Nieve labels it “Last day with the rescuers”; no photographer is named.
Provenance and sources for frame 2

Displayed file: 507 × 345 pixels. Full image record in Russian.

sociedaddelanieve.comView image file

On the night of 29 October, an avalanche buried the fuselage. Eight more people died; the others were trapped under snow. It took days to clear a way out.

3. Outside the shelter

People stand in the snow near the fuselage, with Fuerza Aérea visible on its side. From a collection of pictures made by survivors; photographer and exact date unknown.
People stand in the snow near the fuselage, with Fuerza Aérea visible on its side. From a collection of pictures made by survivors; photographer and exact date unknown.
Provenance and sources for frame 3

Displayed file: 925 × 634 pixels. Full image record in Russian.

sociedaddelanieve.comView image file

On 12 December, Fernando Parrado, Roberto Canessa and Antonio Vizintín left the camp to seek help. Days later, Vizintín turned back, giving his food to the other two. Parrado and Canessa continued alone. On 20 December, across a river, they saw Chilean herdsman Sergio Catalán. They made contact with a note thrown over the water: “I have come from a plane that fell in the mountains… There are fourteen people left in the plane.”

Chilean Air Force helicopters evacuated the fourteen people still at the fuselage on 22 and 23 December. Together with Parrado and Canessa, sixteen of the forty-five survived. The last were rescued on their seventy-second day in the mountains.

4. After the evacuation

Eduardo Strauch after his rescue on 23 December 1972. Eliodoro Torrente photographed him for Ercilla; the print is held by Chile’s National Historical Museum.
Eduardo Strauch after his rescue on 23 December 1972. Eliodoro Torrente photographed him for Ercilla; the print is held by Chile’s National Historical Museum.
Provenance and sources for frame 4

Displayed file: 500 × 399 pixels. The source identifies this image as copyrighted. Full image record in Russian.

fotografiapatrimonial.clmuseoaeronautico.dgac.gob.clView image file