The crash, survivors and a rugby match
Source: Agencies |
October 15, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SURVIVING members of a Uruguayan rugby team have played a match postponed four decades ago when their plane crashed in the Andes, stranding them for 72 days in the cordillera and forcing them to eat human flesh to stay alive.
The Old Christians Club squared off on Saturday in Santiago against the Old Grangonian Club, the former Chilean rugby team they were supposed to play back when their flight went down. Their terrifying story became the basis of a best-selling book and a Hollywood movie.
"At about this time we were falling in the Andes. Today, we're here to win a game," crash survivor Pedro Algorta, 61, said.
During the anniversary ceremony, military jets flew over the field, where parachutists draped in Chilean and Uruguayan flags landed. In a corner, survivors wept when officials unveiled a commemorative frame with pictures of those who died in the snowy peaks.
"The conditions were more horrifying than you can ever imagine. To live at 4,000 meters without any food," said survivor Eduardo Strauch, 65. "The only reason why we're here alive today is because we had the goal of returning home ... (Our loved ones) gave us life. They made the sacrifice for others."
The Uruguayan air force plane that carried the team crashed in a mountain pass in October 1972 while en route from Montevideo to Santiago. Of the 45 passengers aboard, 16 survived by feeding on dead family members and friends preserved in the snow.
"I think the greatest sadness I felt in my life was when I had to eat a dead body," said Roberto Canessa, 59, who was a teenage medical student at the time of the crash. Desperate after more than two months in the frigid peaks, Canessa and Fernando Parrado left the crash site to seek help. It was the group's last attempt at survival.
After 10 days of trekking, they spotted Sergio Catalan, a livestock herder in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. The conditions were such that the pair couldn't get too close to Catalan, but from afar, they heard him say one word: "Tomorrow."
"With that (word), our suffering ended," Canessa said.
Catalan, who at the time rode his horse to the nearest town to alert rescuers, returned to meet the survivors on Saturday.
Survivor Daniel Fernandez, 66, held the trophy that would have been the reward for the game to be played the day of the crash. The ordeal "taught me that we set our own limits," Fernandez said.
The Old Christians Club squared off on Saturday in Santiago against the Old Grangonian Club, the former Chilean rugby team they were supposed to play back when their flight went down. Their terrifying story became the basis of a best-selling book and a Hollywood movie.
"At about this time we were falling in the Andes. Today, we're here to win a game," crash survivor Pedro Algorta, 61, said.
During the anniversary ceremony, military jets flew over the field, where parachutists draped in Chilean and Uruguayan flags landed. In a corner, survivors wept when officials unveiled a commemorative frame with pictures of those who died in the snowy peaks.
"The conditions were more horrifying than you can ever imagine. To live at 4,000 meters without any food," said survivor Eduardo Strauch, 65. "The only reason why we're here alive today is because we had the goal of returning home ... (Our loved ones) gave us life. They made the sacrifice for others."
The Uruguayan air force plane that carried the team crashed in a mountain pass in October 1972 while en route from Montevideo to Santiago. Of the 45 passengers aboard, 16 survived by feeding on dead family members and friends preserved in the snow.
"I think the greatest sadness I felt in my life was when I had to eat a dead body," said Roberto Canessa, 59, who was a teenage medical student at the time of the crash. Desperate after more than two months in the frigid peaks, Canessa and Fernando Parrado left the crash site to seek help. It was the group's last attempt at survival.
After 10 days of trekking, they spotted Sergio Catalan, a livestock herder in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. The conditions were such that the pair couldn't get too close to Catalan, but from afar, they heard him say one word: "Tomorrow."
"With that (word), our suffering ended," Canessa said.
Catalan, who at the time rode his horse to the nearest town to alert rescuers, returned to meet the survivors on Saturday.
Survivor Daniel Fernandez, 66, held the trophy that would have been the reward for the game to be played the day of the crash. The ordeal "taught me that we set our own limits," Fernandez said.
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