Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

One of the FH-227 aircraft used in the production of the 1993 film "Alive", painted to appear as the aircraft involved in the accident.
Accident
Date	13 October – 23 December 1972 (1972-10-13 – 1972-12-23)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error; 72-day survival
Site	Remote Andes in Malargüe Department, Mendoza Province, Argentina (near the Chilean border) 34°45′53.5″S 70°17′06.6″W / 34.764861°S 70.285167°W / -34.764861; -70.285167
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Fairchild Hiller FH-227D
Operator	Uruguayan Air Force
Registration	T-571
Flight origin	Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay
Stopover	Mendoza International Airport, Mendoza, Argentina
Destination	Pudahuel Airport, Santiago, Chile
Occupants	45
Passengers	40
Crew	5
Fatalities	29
Survivors	16

Crash site

Santiago

Montevideo

Mendoza

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Location of the crash site in west central Argentina

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on 13 October 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaster (Tragedia de los Andes, literally Tragedy of the Andes) and the Miracle of the Andes (Milagro de los Andes).

The inexperienced co-pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Dante Héctor Lagurara, was piloting the aircraft at the time of the accident. He mistakenly believed the aircraft had overflown Curicó, the turning point to fly north, and began descending towards what he thought was Pudahuel Airport in Santiago de Chile. He failed to notice that instrument readings indicated he was still 60–69 km (37–43 mi) east of Curicó. Lagurara, upon regaining visual flight conditions, saw the mountain and unsuccessfully tried to gain altitude. The aircraft struck a mountain ridge, shearing off both wings and the tail cone. The remaining portion of the fuselage slid down a glacier at an estimated 350 km/h (220 mph), descending 725 metres (2,379 ft) before ramming into an ice and snow mound.

The flight was carrying 45 passengers and crew, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team, along with their families, supporters and friends. Three crew members and nine passengers died immediately and several more died soon after due to the frigid temperatures and the severity of their injuries. The crash site is located at an elevation of 3,660 metres (12,020 ft) in the remote Andes mountains of western Argentina, just east of the border with Chile.^[1] Search and rescue aircraft overflew the crash site several times during the following days, but failed to see the white fuselage against the snow. Search efforts were called off after eight days of searching.^[2]

During the 72 days following the crash, the survivors suffered from extreme hardships, including sub-zero temperatures, exposure, starvation, and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of 13 more passengers. The remaining passengers resorted to eating the flesh of those who died in order to survive. Convinced they would die if they did not seek help, two survivors, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, set out across the mountains on 12 December. Using only materials found in the aircraft wreck, they climbed 839 metres (2,753 ft) from the crash site up 30-to-60 degree slopes to a 4,503-metre (14,774 ft) ridge to the west of the summit of Mount Seler. From there they trekked 53.9 kilometres (33.5 mi) for 10 days into Chile before finding help. On 22 and 23 December, 1972, two and a half months after the crash, the remaining 14 survivors were rescued. Their survival made worldwide news.