On October 13, 1972 The Fairchild FH-227D plane of the Uruguayan Air Force disappeared along with 45 people. After 10 days of intense searching the area and in accordance with the rescue protocol, they stopped looking for him. After 72 days living in extreme conditions, as portrayed in the film The Snow Society, 16 survivors were able to return to their homes. Here, a review with exclusive photos from the GENTE archive.
This is how GENTE magazine covered the search after the plane crash
Just 5 days after the tragedy, journalist Alfredo Serra and photographer Juan Manuel Fernández left Mendoza in a fighter-bomber plane with the rescue team trying to find the Uruguayan plane.
Magazine PEOPLE He set out in search of the Uruguayan plane on October 18, 1972.
Still full of hope, at that moment the rescue pilot showed faith in locating the traces of the plane that had disappeared. “The Cordillera is open, maybe we’ll get lucky,” he said as he glided over one of the longest mountain ranges in the world.
With the illusion intact, the journalist detected some sign at his feet. According to the pilot who was flying the plane, finding traces of objects with so much snow would be “a miracle.” And so it seemed to be. Four hours after starting the journey, the team returned to Mendoza empty-handed.
This is how the GENTE magazine team and the rescuers prepared for an unsuccessful mission.
December 22: the day the tragedy ended
After 72 days living in the most extreme conditions anyone could imagine, the 16 survivors were rescued. This occurred after an extensive walk of approximately 40 kilometers started by Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa.
This is what the cross that the survivors had made from the rescue helicopter looked like.
After 10 days, in which they climbed mountain peaks of more than 4,600 meters, they met Sergio Catalán, a Chilean mule driver. He was the one who notified the Chilean authorities about the survivors.
Javier Methol, one of the largest survivors of the group.
“We heard on the radio that they had found two survivors of the Uruguayan plane. We started screaming, we threw ourselves on top of each other, we rolled in the snow like kids. Afterwards, although it may seem like a joke, we put on our best clothes, we washed ourselves with snow, we brushed our teeth because we still had toothpaste left and we always said that it was our dessert. We sat next to the plane to wait. The most beautiful memory of my life is the ‘tacatacataca’ that the helicopter made. Unfortunately we could not forget all those who had died next to us,” said Carlos Páez a few days after the aforementioned rescue.
This is how the emotional reunion between the survivors and their families was experienced.
For its part, this medium recovered Nando’s first words: “I am Parrado, the one who lost his mother and his sister in the tragedy. If I had been in Montevideo in my normal life and they had told me that they died in an accident, I would have gone crazy. I would have smashed my head against the wall. However, in the mountains everything was different.”
Three days after their rescue, the survivors of the Tragedy of the Andes spent Christmas Day together.
The letter that Canessa and Parrado gave to the Chilean muleteer
“I come from a plane that fell in the mountains. I am Uruguayan. We have been walking for 10 days. I have an injured friend upstairs. There are 14 injured people on the plane. We have to get out of here quickly and we don’t know how. We don’t have food. We are weak. When are they going to look us upstairs? Please. We can’t even walk. “Where are we?” said the letter Parrado wrote.
The letter that Canessa and Parrado gave to the mule driver.
Photos of survivors after the accident
Fernando “Nando” Parrado was reunited with his dog Jim after the fierce experience in the Andes Mountains. According to GENTE magazine that day, the animal took a while to recognize it until finally he jumped on the survivor and He started licking it.
The emotional meeting between Fernando “Nando” Parrado with his dog.
“Nando” confessed to this medium that when he returned home everything had changed. It should be noted that his mother and his sister died in the fatal accident. “For him (his father) we had all died in the Cordillera. That’s why there are changes,” she explained.
Fernando Parrado in his room.
Parrado’s father He completely modified his home after the tragedy in the Andes. Among so many changes, she decided to sell his son’s motorcycle. Upon returning to Uruguay, the buyer generously decided to return the vehicle to its original owner.
The buyer of the motorcycle decided to return the vehicle to Fernando Parrado.
“Now I do… Now I really feel at home,” said Carlos Páez while kneeling and kissing the sand of the Uruguayan coast.
Carlos Páez kissing the Uruguayan beach.
Alfredo Delgado He returned to Uruguay and was received by a crowd. There he met again with his girlfriend Stella Maris. According to media reports at the time He wore glasses to cover his tears.
The meeting between Alfredo Delgado and his girlfriend Stella Maris.
On December 29, 1972, just 6 days after their rescue, the survivors faced a press conference.
After a lot of mystery regarding how they had survived and how they had fed, Alfredo Delgado decided to tell the truth once and for all.
“One, there, does feel God. And above all, he feels what is called the hand of God, and he interprets it. That moment came when we no longer had food or things like that. We think: ‘If Jesus at the Last Supper distributed his body and blood to all his apostles, he was giving us to understand that we should do the same.’ We took his body and his blood that had become incarnate. That, which was an intimate communion between all of us, helped us survive. It was a delivery from each one. We don’t want this, which is an intimate thing, to be handled, touched or anything like that,” he said.
After insistent questions from the press, Alfredo Delgado was the one who confessed that they had fed themselves with the bodies of the deceased. Moved, Alfredo Delgado hugged deeply with his best friend.
The site of the Andes Tragedy 6 months after the accident
In April 1973, journalist Alfredo Serra and photographer Eduardo Frías from GENTE magazine they settled for two days and two nights in the same place where the 16 survivors of the tragedy in the Andes were for 72 days.
The GENTE magazine team returned to the Valley of Tears where the remains of the plane were still found.
The correspondents of this medium wanted to be present where one of the most talked-about tragedies of recent years occurred.
In addition to taking a record of what the place where the Uruguayans had stayed for more than two months was like. They found personal belongings of theirs. Among them, the journalist highlighted that in the snow he had found Fernando Parrado’s driver’s license.
Survivors waiting to be rescued.
Material: Atlántida Group Archive
Archive collection: Mónica Banyik
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2024-01-19 00:23:13
#shocking #photos #Andes #tragedy
