A SURVIVOR of the 1972 Andes flight disaster has recounted how the victims
were forced to eat their friends’ frozen bodies in order to survive the
deadly crash.
Roberto Canessa was a second-year medical student with the world at his feet
when the plane he had chartered with his rugby team mates – and childhood
friends – crashed into the mountains.
He told The Daily Mail of the agonising decision to resort to cannibalism
after the scarce supplies on-board were exhausted within days and hopes of a
quick rescue faded.
Roberto said: “After just a few days we were feeling the sensation of our own
bodies consuming themselves just to remain alive. Before long we would
become too weak to recover from starvation.
“We knew the answer, but it was too terrible to contemplate.
“The bodies of our friends and team-mates, preserved outside in the snow and
ice, contained vital, life-giving protein that could help us survive. But
could we do it?
“For a long time we agonised. I went out in the snow and prayed to God for
guidance. Without His consent, I felt I would be violating the memory of my
friends; that I would be stealing their souls.
“We wondered whether we were going mad even to contemplate such a thing. Had
we turned into brute savages? Or was this the only sane thing to do? Truly,
we were pushing the limits of our fear.”
Roberto says he managed to reconcile himself when he remembered the words he
had said himself in the aftermath of the crash: that if he died, the rest
could use his body to survive.
“For me, it was an honour to say that if my heart stopped beating, my arms and
legs and muscles could still be part of our communal mission to get off the
mountain. I wanted to know I’d still be playing my part,” he explained to
The Daily Mail.
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“And now, as a doctor, I cannot help associating that event — using a dead
body to continue living — with something that would be realised the world
over in the coming decades: organ and tissue transplants.
“We were the ones to break the taboo. But the world would break it with us in
the years to come, as what was once thought bizarre became a new way to
honour the dead.
“Gradually, each of us came to our own decision in our own time. And once we
had done so, it was irreversible. It was our final goodbye to innocence.
“We were never the same again.”
Four of the victims — Roberto, Gustavo Zerbino, Fito Strauch and Daniel
Maspons— took a razor-blade or shard of glass to cut the clothes off the
bodies and laid the thin strips of frozen flesh aside on a piece of sheet
metal.
“Each of us finally consumed our piece when we could bear to.”
The flight was carrying 45 passengers at the time of the crash and 27 people
survived the initial impact.
However other factors, including harsh conditions and an avalanche, meant that
by the time rescue operations were carried out 72 days after the disaster,
only 16 survivors remained.
Roberto’s story is adapted from his book, I Had To Survive: How A Plane Crash
In The Andes Inspired My Calling To Save Lives by Dr Roberto Canessa and
Pablo Vierci, to be published by Constable on March 3, £18.99. © Dr Roberto
Canessa and Pablo Vierci 2016. To pre-order a copy for £15.19, visit
mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0808 272 0808. Offer until February 27; p&p
free on orders over £12.