50 years later, the survivors of the Andes Cordillera crash tell their story

50 years later, Carlos Paez has not forgotten the nightmare he lived through. He is one of 16 survivors of a plane crash in the Andes. For 70 days, he and his comrades in misfortune survived in the snow and cold, lost at 4,000 meters above sea level. “Our story is a struggle against the renunciation of life. Our great merit is to have been able to say yes to life. Our small group remained united until the end. When one of us was feeling down, there was always someone to pick it up.“, he testifies.

The research had however been interrupted for a long time when they were discovered. They were finally able to be rescued after walking for days in the mountains. That day, these images went around the world. “You know what I always say to those who believe that hell exists? Me, I lived through hell in the Andes“, explains Roy Harley, survivor of the crash. Members of a Uruguayan rugby team, they were to reach Chile when the plane crashed. To fight against the famine, they must eat the human flesh of the deceased passengers. in the crash.