#nando perrado

[societyofthesnowcollection]

Nando Parrado returns home. 1972.

[jonesie32]

On October 13th, 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes with members of the Old Christians Club rugby team en route to a match in Chile. The meager food rations they had did not last long and once the hunger began to set in, they all (some more reluctant than others) decided to consume their deceased friends. During this time they endured the blizzard-like conditions, an extreme sense of hopelessness (they learned the search had been called off after 10 days from a small radio) and even a devastating avalanche.

This photo was taken in December 1972, around two months after the crash. 

Two men, Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa trekked through harsh, unforgivable conditions for 10 days before coming across a river and a man on the other side on December 20. The man, Sergio Catalan, threw the men some bread and cheese after learning what they had gone through and left to get some help. Parrado and Canessa were rescued the next day and by December 23rd 1972 (over 72 days after the crash), the last of the 16 survivors were rescued.

Nando Parrado once said that he prefers to call what he and the others did as anthropophagy, which means the act of eating human flesh rather than cannibalism, which most people tend to connect with murder.

This is an extremely watered down version of what happened. I cannot resist reading or watching anything about this amazing story of survival whenever I come across it. All this being said... What is that long, dark thing on the very right? Next to the seats? Is that was I think it may be? (click for larger picture)