50 years of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash: 16 survivors who resorted to cannibalism recall horrifying ordeal

After crashing into the Andes mountains, the survivors of flight 571 of the Uruguayan Airforce might have starved to death, if they wouldn't resort to eating human flesh, recalls Ramon Sabella, 70.

The fateful 16 survivors met to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash on October 13 and recalled what they had to undergo to stay alive.

A book by Piers Paul Read, 'The Story of Andes Survivors', was also made later into a Hollywood film in 1993. The flight was chartered to take the amateur rugby football team from Montevideo to Santiago in Chile.


Reportedly, the pilot rammed the plane into the mountainside during bad weather, killing 29 passengers, some due to the crash and a few from an avalanche.

In ten days, the survivors heard on the radio that the search for them had been called off. They were sure their people at home were devastated, so they tried even harder to stay alive. They soon finished whatever edibles were left on the plane. Consequently, they resorted to cannibalism for survival.



'Thinking of the suffering that must have caused our families at home made us even more determined to survive,' said Sabella.

'Eating human flesh doesn’t taste like anything, really,' said survivor and son of an Uruguayan artist, Carlitos Paez.

Paez said he travelled to many places telling the story about his ordeal and those of his friends. The group meets on October 13 for prayers each year. They survived 72 days in the Andes.

FAQs

1. What do you call people who eat human flesh?
   Cannibals.
2. Since When did cannibalism exist?
   Since 100,000 years ago during the Neanderthals period.