Forty year on from the plane crash that changed his life
forever, Dr Roberto Canessa still vividly remembers having to eat the flesh of
friends to survive.
He was one of 16 men who escaped death when their
chartered aircraft smashed into the bleak Andes mountains between Chile and
Argentina on October 13, 1972.
They were rescued 72 days later after Dr Canessa, then a
19-year-old medical student, and another survivor trekked for 10 days to get
help.
Today, he dedicates his life to others, but has never forgotten the
moment he turned cannibal and ate the flesh of one of the dead passengers.
He
told the Sun: 'It was repugnant. Through the eyes of our civilised society it
was a disgusting decision. My dignity was on the floor having to grab a piece
of my dead friend and eat it in order to survive.
'But then I thought of my mother and wanted to do my best
to get back to see her. I swallowed a piece and it was a huge step - after
which nothing happened.'
Dr Canessa, now a top pediatric cardiologist, was one of 45 passengers including his rugby team Old Christians, aboard the Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 when it hit a mountain range shrouded in mist as it flew from Santiago to Montevideo.
Twelve men died on impact, another five within hours and
one more a week later. Tragedy struck again on the 17th day of their ordeal
when an avalanche killed eight more of the passengers.
The survivors had little food and no source of heat in the
harsh conditions at over 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) altitude.
Faced with starvation and radio news reports that the
search for them had been abandoned, those who lived fed on the dead passengers
who had been preserved in the snow.
Rescuers
did not learn of the survivors until 72 days after the crash when Nando Parrado
and Dr Canessa, set out to find help and stumbled across Chilean Sergio
Catalán,who gave them food and then alerted authorities.
Their harrowing story was told in the 1993 film Alive, but
the real-life trauma of his weeks in the icy waste remains with Dr Canessa.
He told writer Tom Goodenough that the cold in his bones
was like pliers being pressed down on them.
He said: 'We were in a lifeless environment with only snow
and stars up there. We were in a place not for humans and which we didn't
belong to.'
Dr
Canessa's girlfriend Laura was later to become his wife and the mother of his
three children, but it was thoughts of his mother that kept him going through
his ordeal.
He says he did not want his death to cause her any mental
anguish and suffering.
Today he lives in Montevideo with his family and tries to
enjoy every minute as a tribute to the friends who died in that desolate
landscape decade ago.
Credits to Dailymail.co.uk
