Drastic Adjustments: How Crash Survivors Became Canibals

On October 12, 1972, a Fairchild F-227 of the Uruguayan Air Force was chartered by an amateur rugby team to fly them from Montevideo to Santiago in Chile. There were 45 on board, including the crew and passengers. Bad weather brought the plane down in Mendoza, a small Argentine town – and with weather improvement the next day, the Fairchild took off again, flying south to the Planchon Pass.

At 3:21 pm the pilot reported to the Air Traffic Control in Santiago that he was over the Pass of Planchon.

At 3:24 pm, he reported their plane was over a small town in Chile named Carico. He was authorised to turn north and begin his descent to the airport in Pudahuel.

At 3:30 pm, he reported his height – 15,000 feet. 

When Santiago control tower spoke to the F-227 a minute later, there was no response – nor any for the next ten weeks. What has happened? The unexpected and worst event that changed the world’s history!

Several things made search attempts futile. The Andes are a vast treacherous and confusing range. The top of the plane was white and everywhere is snowy. There was no chance that any on board would survive because of the terrible weather and the belief was that the worst had happened.

10 weeks later, a peasant tending his cattle noticed two bearded figures in the distance. They begged him to come closer but he ran away, thinking they were terrorists. The next day when he returned and still noticed the two strangers across the river, he wrapped some paper and pen into a handkerchief and tossed it to the other side. When the paper was tossed back, on it was written,

“I come from a plane that fell in the mountain. I am Uruguayan ...”

Those who survived the ordeal had become cannibals; they were eating the flesh of their friends and teammates.

Editor’s Note:  That was what I call that drastic action or radical adjustments.

Question:

·      In what areas of your life do you need to take drastic action because devil is a strong antagonist but you have to be more stubborn to succeed?

·      In which circumstances have you made radical adjustments in the past – and what was the outcome?