Perhaps this was one of the worst and most extreme situations to which human beings were subjected, when ethical and moral values had to be set aside in the name of survival.

Newsroom (16/10/2022 10:55 AM Gaudium Press) October 13th. Fifty years ago, on the same date, a group of players from the Uruguayan rugby team were chatting animatedly, four thousand meters above sea level, inside an airplane, on their way to Chile, where they would participate in a friendly match. But if the atmosphere inside the aircraft was relaxed and pleasant, it was quite different outside. The bad weather induced the pilot to make a fatal error that would change the fate of the 40 passengers and five crew members on Flight 571.

A Tragedy

The descent procedure was started prematurely, resulting in the impact with the summit of a snow-covered mountain. That was the end of the Fairchild FH-7827, which broke in half and descended at over 300km/h.

12 people died during the crash. 17 would die in the coming days, unable to withstand the inclement temperature, which reached 30 degrees below zero, the psychological shock, the fear, and the scarcity of water and food, a situation in which it is easier to die, and surviving is akin to knowing hell.

A moving story that has been turned into books and films based on the accounts of the 16 survivors of the tragedy in the Andes, the world’s highest mountain range.

After ten days lost in the snow and ice, one of the survivors improvised a radio, but not only could they not communicate as they wanted to, they also heard the heartbreaking news that the search had been terminated because the authorities did not believe there were any survivors.

On the 16th day, battered by cold and hunger, the group, taking shelter in the plane’s fuselage to try to escape the inclement winds, was surprised by a snow avalanche, which resulted in eight deaths.

Melting snow to quench their thirst and fighting for the improbable in such inhospitable conditions, having finished the little food they found in the wreckage of the plane, the young men were overcome by hunger, made even more overwhelming by the cold, which requires much more energy from the body.

In the Name of Survival

When the food really ran out, one of the survivors suggested feeding on the flesh of the corpses of the other victims of the tragedy. It is recounted that at first most of them were reluctant, believing that they would soon be rescued. But as the days went by, they gave in to hunger and survival instincts and practiced cannibalism.

This was perhaps one of the worst and most extreme situations to which human beings have been subjected, when ethical and moral values had to be left aside in the name of survival. The group was rescued on December 22, 72 days after the accident, thanks to the efforts of Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, who walked for ten days until they found a cowboy riding near the place where they managed to arrive.

Still today, 50 years later, the group meets annually on December 22 to celebrate what they consider a kind of anniversary, the day they would have been “born again”.

Purpose of Life

Nando Parrado, who has become a successful businessman and amassed a fortune in the area of events and communication, made a quaint statement, to say the least: “I am a very strong and ethical businessman. I like good restaurants, good cars, flying first class more than anyone. And how did I manage to accumulate all this? By doing the same thing I did in the Andes. By living each day as if it were the most important day.

So that was what all that adventure was for, all that suffering? Challenging the most inhospitable conditions imaginable, quenching your thirst by drinking melting snow, having your skin scorched by the cold, starving yourself to the point of eating the flesh of other human beings, walking ten days facing strong winds, extreme cold, uncertainty and the unknown, only to conclude, 50 years later, that you like good restaurants, good cars and first-class flying?

This statement, from a professional known and admired for his drive and success in business, makes us think that everything they went through and everything they did was only driven by the most basic survival instinct. All of this was done to guarantee the life of the body and the possibility of satisfying its appetites and providing it with all sorts of pleasures, in the name of 72 days of harsh privations.

Because of the unusual things these 16 survivors went through, their misfortunes have become known throughout the world, but how many there are, anonymous, who do the most absurd things to guarantee survival and longevity, as if the life of the body were the most important asset of a human being, whose soul’s life would also be exhausted with the last breath?

The Life of the Soul

How little is done to guarantee the life of the soul and access to eternity, a happy eternity, which can only be won by a life of holiness, piety and prayer! But, on the contrary, people run away from it, because ‘holiness gets in the way of enjoying all the pleasures, piety can be left for tomorrow, and prayer is the stuff of weak and foolish people.

What many forget is that when the plane of life falls over the great mountain range that divides life and death, good and evil, hell and heaven, there will be no way to melt the snow of indifference to quench the thirst caused by sin, nor will we be able to feed on the souls of those unfortunates who died before us.

In one point, Mr. Nando Parrado is correct, one must live each day well, but without forgetting that the most important thing is tomorrow, because today of our insignificance will soon pass away and our tomorrow is called eternity, and once we are plunged into the abyss by excessive zeal for this passing life, there will be no way back.

By Afonso Pessoa
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier