Andes plane crash: ‘I ate my friends to survive’
Survivors Stand Beside Covered Wreckage…Survivors of a plane crash in the Chilean Andes wave to the rescue helicopter. The plane, a Fairchild belonging to the Uruguayan air force, was on a chartered flight carrying member of a soccer team from Santiago back to Montevideo when it crashed in the Andes. The survivors where stranded high in the mountains for 10 weeks before two managed to hike down the peaks. Only 16 of the 45 people on the flight survived.
Andes Images
from Phil Le Blanc / Corbis
for paul bennett…Men
Uruguayans
Young adults
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Andes Plane Crash 1972
Aircraft crashes
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Waving
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San Fernando
In 1972, Roberto Canessa was one of 45 people aboard a plane that crashed high in the Andes mountains.
Twelve were killed in the crash, six died in the next few days, and 11 more perished due to the lack of food and harsh conditions they faced.
Those who were left ate the bodies of the dead in order to have any chance of living long enough to be rescued.
Forty years on Dr Canessa is a successful cardiologist who specialises in heart surgery for unborn babies and children.
He spoke to Victoria Derbyshire presenter Joanna Gosling about the book he has written, I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives.