{"id":27868499,"date":"2026-10-13T10:20:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/uruguayan-air-force-flight-571-andes-crash-1972-survivors\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T10:21:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:21:47","slug":"uruguayan-air-force-flight-571-andes-crash-1972-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/uruguayan-air-force-flight-571-andes-crash-1972-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: 72 Days in the Andes"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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Many of them were young men from the Old Christians Club rugby team of Montevideo, on their way to play a match in Chile with friends and family along for the trip.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>They never arrived. In cloud over the high cordillera, the aircraft began its descent too early and struck a mountain ridge. What followed became one of the most famous survival stories of the 20th century: 72 days on a glacier at more than 3,600 metres, with no proper clothing, almost no food, and a search that was called off after eight days.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Sixteen people came home. This is how.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f6f8;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:26px 0\">\r\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Date of crash:<\/strong> 13 October 1972<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Fairchild FH-227D, registration T-571<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Route:<\/strong> Montevideo to Santiago, via Mendoza<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>On board:<\/strong> 45 (40 passengers, 5 crew)<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Cause:<\/strong> Controlled flight into terrain after a premature descent over the Andes<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Crash site:<\/strong> Malarg\u00fce Department, Mendoza Province, Argentina, about 3,660 m<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Search called off:<\/strong> 21 October 1972<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Rescue:<\/strong> 22 and 23 December 1972, after 72 days<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:3px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Survivors:<\/strong> 16 of 45<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Navigation Error in Cloud<\/h2>\r\n<p>The flight had begun the day before, on 12 October, when the chartered FH-227D left Montevideo for Santiago. Bad weather over the mountains forced an overnight stop in Mendoza. On the afternoon of Friday, 13 October, the crew took off again at 2:18pm to cross the Andes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The co-pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Dante H\u00e9ctor Lagurara, was flying the aircraft under training. Believing they had passed over Curic\u00f3 in Chile, on the far side of the mountains, he began the descent towards Santiago. In fact they were still between 60 and 70 kilometres east of Curic\u00f3, deep in the Andes. The official investigation blamed pilot error leading to controlled flight into terrain.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The aircraft hit a ridge, lost both wings and its tail, and the fuselage slid about 725 metres down a glacier before coming to rest. Several people died in the impact and many more were badly hurt. Roberto Canessa later told National Geographic that in its final moments the pilot \"began to climb, until the plane was nearly vertical and it began to stall and shake.\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/fairchild-fh-227d-t-571-uruguayan-air-force-1972.jpg\" alt=\"Fairchild FH-227 painted as Uruguayan Air Force T-571 for the 1993 film Alive\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Fairchild FH-227 painted to represent T-571 for the 1993 film Alive. The real aircraft was an FH-227D of the Uruguayan Air Force. Photo: Pedro Escobal \/ Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Search Is Called Off<\/h2>\r\n<p>Search aircraft flew over the mountains, but the fuselage was white and the glacier was white, and the wreck was not spotted. On 21 October, eight days after the crash, the search was called off. The survivors heard the news on a small transistor radio.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>They had almost nothing to eat, a little chocolate and some snacks shared out in tiny portions, and the nights were far below freezing. They insulated the broken fuselage with luggage and seat cushions and huddled together to survive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>As the days passed, the survivors faced the decision that made the story famous. With no food and no rescue coming, they agreed, after long and painful debate, to eat the bodies of those who had died. Several of them were devout Catholics, and the choice weighed heavily on them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;Our common goal was to survive, but what we lacked was food.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Roberto Canessa<\/strong> &mdash; Flight 571 survivor, to National Geographic, 2016<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>On the night of 29 October, an avalanche buried the fuselage while they slept, killing eight more people. Others died of their injuries in the weeks that followed. In all, 29 of the 45 on board lost their lives.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1Pg__L5Ijr0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:6px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">7NEWS Spotlight's documentary on the Andes disaster, with survivors' accounts. Viewed more than 12 million times.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Ten Days Across the Mountains<\/h2>\r\n<p>By December the survivors knew nobody was coming. On 12 December, Nando Parrado, Roberto Canessa and Antonio Vizint\u00edn set out to walk out of the mountains. After about three days, Vizint\u00edn returned to the fuselage and the other two went on alone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Parrado and Canessa climbed high into the mountains, saw nothing but peaks in every direction, and kept walking west. Parrado later recalled saying to his friend: \"Roberto, can you imagine how beautiful this would be if we were not walking dead?\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>After about nine days they reached a river valley in Chile, where they met a Chilean muleteer, Sergio Catal\u00e1n. Parrado wrote him a note explaining who they were.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;I come from an airplane that crashed in the mountains. I am Uruguayan. We have been walking for 10 days.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Nando Parrado<\/strong> &mdash; Note to Sergio Catal\u00e1n, December 1972 (translated from Spanish)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Catal\u00e1n went for help. The two men were taken to Los Maitenes, and on 22 December the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/chilean-air-force\/\">Chilean Air Force<\/a> flew rescuers into the mountains to the fuselage. The last survivors were brought out on 23 December. After 72 days, 16 people came home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/andes-panorama-from-flight-571-wreckage.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain panorama seen from the Flight 571 wreckage site in the Andes\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The view from the Flight 571 wreckage site, high in the Andes of Mendoza Province. Photo: Wunabbis \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Story That Never Went Away<\/h2>\r\n<p>The survivors' story was told in Piers Paul Read's 1974 book Alive, which became the 1993 film of the same name, with Parrado as technical adviser. Parrado's own memoir, Miracle in the Andes, followed in 2006. In 2023 the Spanish director J. A. Bayona released Society of the Snow, based on Pablo Vierci's 2008 book, and brought the story to a new generation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>For pilots, Flight 571 remains a case study in controlled flight into terrain, the kind of accident that modern terrain-warning systems and satellite navigation were built to prevent. A crew that believed it had crossed the mountains descended into them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>For everyone else, it is a story about what people will do to stay alive and to bring each other home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XiODmUDZAh0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:6px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">Nando Parrado talks about surviving the 1972 Andes crash.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tIoCwtsjk2M\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:6px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">Nando Parrado on Skavlan, describing how he survived the crash of Flight 571.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571); National Geographic (Worrall, 2016); Nando Parrado, Miracle in the Andes (2006); Piers Paul Read, Alive (1974).<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was a Fairchild FH-227D chartered to carry the Old Christians Club rugby team and their friends and family from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile. On 13 October 1972 it crashed in the Andes with 45 people on board.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did Flight 571 crash?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The official investigation blamed pilot error leading to controlled flight into terrain. The co-pilot believed the aircraft had passed Curic\u00f3 in Chile and began descending, but it was still about 60 to 70 kilometres east, over the Andes. It struck a ridge and slid down a glacier.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many people survived the 1972 Andes plane crash?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Sixteen of the 45 people on board survived. Some died in the crash, others from their injuries, and an avalanche on 29 October 1972 killed eight more. The survivors were rescued on 22 and 23 December 1972, after 72 days.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How were the Andes survivors rescued?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">On 12 December 1972, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa set out on foot and walked for about ten days until they met Chilean muleteer Sergio Catal\u00e1n, who fetched help. The Chilean Air Force reached the crash site on 22 December, and the last survivors were flown out on 23 December.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did the Flight 571 survivors stay alive for 72 days?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">With almost no food and the search called off after eight days, the survivors made the painful collective decision to eat the bodies of those who had died. They sheltered in the broken fuselage and insulated it with luggage and seat cushions against the freezing nights.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Which films tell the story of Flight 571?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The story was told in the 1993 film Alive, based on Piers Paul Read's 1974 book, and in the 2023 Spanish film Society of the Snow, directed by J. A. Bayona and based on Pablo Vierci's book. Survivor Nando Parrado also wrote the memoir Miracle in the Andes.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was a Fairchild FH-227D chartered to carry the Old Christians Club rugby team and their friends and family from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile. 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Survivor Nando Parrado also wrote the memoir Miracle in the Andes.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/adrienne-bolland-andes-crossing-caudron-g3-1921\/\">Adrienne Bolland: She Flew the Andes With 40 Hours<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-yellow-ribbon-gander-9-11-diverted-flights\/\">Operation Yellow Ribbon: The Day Gander Took 6,600 Strangers<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story Fifty-four years ago today, a twin-turboprop of the Uruguayan Air Force took off from Mendoza in Argentina with 45 people on board, bound across the Andes for Santiago. Many of them were young men from the Old Christians Club rugby team of Montevideo, on their way to play a match in Chile [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27868346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27868499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: 72 Days in the Andes | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On 13 October 1972 Flight 571 crashed in the Andes with 45 aboard. 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