SUR LES RICHES COLINES DE L’URUGUAY – Fernando Parrado, 74, was one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed in the Andes in 1972. Parrado miraculously survived for 72 days without food, water, or winter clothing at an altitude of more than 9,800 feet. Parrado was traveling with his family and friends at the time of the crash and spent two months trapped in the mountains with the other survivors.
The flight, chartered to take members of the amateur Old Christians Club rugby team to a match with an English team, crashed into the Andes after an inexperienced co-pilot failed to notice their location, resulting in a tragic accident that claimed the lives of 29 people. After 10 days, the remaining survivors learned from a radio on the plane that the search had been called off, and they would have to endure 72 days of extreme hardships, including starvation, freezing temperatures, and avalanches.
Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, two of the survivors, hiked through the Andes mountains for ten days to seek help, eventually stumbling upon a shepherd who sounded the alarm. The survivors witnessed planes fly over the crash scene three times but were not spotted, leading to the rescue efforts being called off after just eight days of searching. Parrado and Canessa managed to find help ten days later, and helicopters were dispatched to rescue the remaining survivors.
In the years following his rescue, Fernando Parrado tried his hand at a career as a professional race car driver and later became a television personality. He is also a motivational speaker and the co-author of a book about his experience in the Andes called “Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home”. Parrado’s remarkable story of survival has been the subject of several feature films, further cementing his place in history as a symbol of hope and resilience.